Fatherhood Fulltime
by SLPikachu
Summary: Bobby receives unexpected news: He's a father. Bobby isn't too sure about it, especially when the kid's so closed up and scared of her own shadow.
1. Unexpected News

**I found a clip on YouTube the other day of the scene with Bobby's old man and this idea popped into my head. Not sure where it came from but I figured I would give it a try, plus, there isn't very many stories about Bobby on here. Let me know what you think.**

**A Bobby Singer Story**

Chapter 1

Bobby laid back in his favorite recliner, a beer in his hand as he flipped though the channels of his newly fixed TV. Usually he had to research or look up a certain piece of some supernatural creature, but there was a rare moment when he got time to relax and Bobby was glad to take it. However, the phone seemed to always shorten that peace.

Bobby sighed. He lowered the footrest and stood up. He headed inside his kitchen to see which phone was ringing. Bobby was surprised to see it wasn't a hunter. He answered it. "Singer Savage, Bobby speaking."

"Is this Bobby Singer?" It was a woman's voice and she sounded worried.

"Depends on who's asking," he said.

"Do you remember a Dinah from five years ago?"

Bobby thought about it, trying to remember. In his line of work, he meets a lot of people. He remembered very vaguely of a Dinah. The name sounded familiar but a face wasn't coming to mind. "Kind of rings a bell. Why?"

There was a long pause before the woman burst into tears and hung up.

Bobby looked at the phone once he heard a dial tone. "Okay, that was weird," he said, hanging it up and watched the rest of a football game he found on TV. Eventually, he fell asleep in his chair. He was awakened several hours later to a banging on his front door. He shot out of a sound sleep. The only light was from an infomercial selling some kind of new vacuum. He rubbed at his eye, putting the footrest down. "Who could that be at this hour?" Bobby asked, standing up and went to answer it as the banging continued. "Yeah, yeah, I hear ya. Keep your shirt on."

Bobby turned on his porch light before he opened the door. He was still half asleep but he could have sworn there was a woman in her forties standing on his front porch, with a tired little girl no older than five. "Can I help you, miss?"

"I am so sorry to trouble you, but my sister, she died and I couldn't stand…" The woman burst out crying and Bobby realized it was the same woman who had called him, hours before.

Bobby tried to calm her down. "Okay, take it easy. Would you like to come in?"

She wiped her eyes, shaking her head. The woman held out a vanilla folder and a blue _Beyblade _backpack.

Bobby looked at them. "What's this?"

"Her important documents and clothes for her," she answered, sniffing back more tears.

Bobby figured she meant the kid standing there, looking like she was about to fall asleep, standing up. "Look, I'm not a daycare and my house isn't exactly childproof…"

"Please, I don't have any choice. You're the only one I can turn to…" A stray cat from the nearest town knocked something off a table a few feet away. The woman practically jumped out of her skin and took off, at a run where she left her car, shoving the folder and backpack into Bobby's unsuspecting arms.

Bobby stood there, not knowing what to do. He looked down at the kid, who was watching the woman run away. Why she didn't try to run after her or call out to her, Bobby wasn't sure. He sighed, "Come on in, kid."

The kid didn't move, in fact she was clutching something in her hands.

"Kid, you must be freezing out there," Bobby told her. "Come on before you catch a cold."

The kid jumped at his voice and hurried inside. Bobby shut the door and locked it. Now in the light, Bobby could see the kid had brown, shoulder-length hair and dark eyes like his. She wore jeans and a black T-shirt underneath a jacket. What Bobby thought was weird was the fact that she wore an old, worn out, trucker's hat with the bill folded in an up-side down U. In fact, he remembered he used to own one just like it before he lost it somewhere.

He asked her about it. "Where'd get that hat?"

The little girl backed up, slowly. "My mommy wet me 'ave it, I did-tent 'teal it."

"I didn't say you did, sweetpea," Bobby shrugged. "What's your name?"

She didn't respond, instead she started crying, softly.

"Hey, it's okay, don't cry." Bobby hadn't had much experience with kids since Sam and Dean were kids. She kind of reminded him of Sam, actually. Though he wished the kid had an older sibling like Sam did. Bobby wasn't too sure on hugs and comforting. Dean took care of that.

Bobby set the backpack down on the floor and looked inside the folder, finding the kid's birth certificate on top. "So, your name is Hazel Quinn…" He paused when he saw her last name. Scanning down below, he looked at who the father was and right there was his name. Bobby took a step back. "That's impossible! I'm past the father years. I can't have a…" He checked her date of birth next. "A five-year-old kid." Bobby noticed the kid; his kid was growing more and more afraid. He had such a soft spot for kids and seeing her shaking all over, watching him, made his heart melt. In fact, he realized he knew that look in her eye and understood. "Someone hurt ya, didn't they?"

The kid, Hazel continued backing away from him. "I'm a good girl, I promise."

"I know you are, sweetpea," he assured her. "They won't hurt you, anymore and neither would I. Come on, it's late. We'll talk more in the morning, okay?" Bobby handed her, her backpack, finally noticing what was in her hands. "What's that?"

"My...b-beyblade," she stuttered, putting her backpack on.

Bobby figured no one really taught her much on annunciation. He showed her upstairs. "What's a beyblade?" he asked as they climbed the stairs.

When they got to the top, Hazel attached a metal round, flat, top-like toy to a plastic, light green holder. She then ripped out a long, light green cord and the beyblade landed on the floor.

Bobby watched as the toy spun around really fast. "Oh, it's a top on steroids."

When the beyblade stopped spinning, Hazel picked it up. "I'm n-not in t-t-twouble, am I?"

"No, of course not. I thought your toy was very…" Bobby tried thinking of a word, kids used nowadays. "…Cool."

She dropped her head. "Henry ne-ver wiked it."

"Who's Henry?" he asked.

She lifted her head, slowly. "My 'tepdad."

"Is he the one who hurts you?"

She nodded, slowly.

Bobby's heart completely wanted to break. He certainly knew how the kid felt. His father was no father of the year either. "Hey," he said, making Hazel look up again. "If it makes you feel any better, my dad knocked me around, quite a few times, too."

Hazel stared up at him.

"If we wait any longer, the sun will be up." Bobby showed her to a spare bedroom, letting her, literally climb into bed. He tried to help her, but she flinched and backed away. Bobby stepped back and let her do it on her own. As soon as her head hit the pillow, Hazel fell asleep, still clutching her toy in her hand. Bobby, very carefully as not to wake her, pulled the covers out from under her and covered her up with them. "Good night, sweetpea," he whispered to her and left the room.


	2. Chapter 2

**Warning: There are talk of past child abuse**

**A Bobby Singer Story**

Chapter 2

The next morning, Bobby had called his friend, Jody Mills to come over and help him, give him some advice on raising young children. When he woke up, Bobby had thought it was all a weird dream he had had, but when he poked his head in the spare bedroom, he realized it wasn't a dream. It was real.

While Bobby waited for Jody, he had gotten a call from a fellow hunter, asking for help on Pagan gods lore. He skimmed through a book, trying to find it. Bobby was deep into his reading, he didn't hear Hazel come downstairs, into his study. She slowly walked up to him, cautiously and gently tapped him on the leg.

Bobby just about jumped out of his chair, scaring Hazel, as well. She backed up, fast, tripping over herself and fell back, bumping her head on the wall. The house was filled with a blood-curdling scream. Bobby rushed from his chair and kneeled in front of her.

"There, there," he assured her, trying to reach out for her. "It's all right. Let me see."

Hazel flinched, trying to move away from him.

"Hazel, I need to check your head to make sure it ain't bleeding," he told her, trying to be as patient as possible.

She shook her head.

"Please give me a chance, kid, I am your dad and just want to help."

Hazel froze when she heard him tell her he was her father. Last night was confusing to her and Hazel wasn't sure what everything meant. She quickly got to her feet and ran from the room.

Bobby stood up, following after her. Where she went, he wasn't sure but had a hunch. Bobby checked upstairs. The first place he looked was in the closet in Hazel's room. Sure enough, right there, curled up in a ball, was the little girl. Bobby squatted to be closer to her level.

"I'm 'orry! No belt! No belt! I did-tent mean to 'care you," she cried, her face wrapped behind her arms.

Her cries tore at his heartstrings. This was why he didn't want kids of his own. Bobby did not want his kids experiencing the same thing he experienced, growing up. "Sweetpea, it was an accident. I know you didn't mean to scare me. I was reading and I didn't hear you come in. I promise, I'm not gonna use my belt on you, I swear."

Hazel slowly lifted her head. "I'm not in t-twouble?" she asked.

Bobby shook his head. "Like I said before, I just wanted to check your head to make sure it wasn't bleeding."

"Am I in t-twouble for running away?"

He shook his head, again. "You got scared, I understand. Can I check your head now, please?"

Hazel slowly rose to her feet and came out of the closet, towards her father, watching him, the whole time. Bobby sat back, onto his heels as she turned around. He then removed her hat and examined where Hazel had hit her head. She tensed up at his touch.

Bobby raised some of her hair up, looking for blood or a bump. Thankfully, it was just a small bump forming. "Well, there's no blood, but you have a little bump there. Should go away in a day or two."

"I wish Mommy were here, she makes my owies go away with kit-tiz," Hazel said, sadly.

Bobby had no clue what came over him, but the next thing he knew, he kissed the back of her head. "All better?"

Hazel looked back at her father, shocked but nodded.

Bobby let out a smile. If he didn't know better, he'd swear the kid was growing on him. It was actually a great feeling, being a father to a little kid, even though he would probably be in his sixties by the time she graduates high school. He placed the hat back on her head, adjusting it for her. "You kind of look like your old man, there," he continued to smiled.

Hazel stared at him, confused.

Bobby caught it. "I mean, you look like me with that hat on. You have my everything, except you must have your mother's nose. No one in my family has that shape that I know of."

Hazel folded her hands behind her back, digging her sock-covered toe into the wood floor as she stared at it.

"Hey, look at me," he told her.

Hazel looked back up at him.

"I may have just met ya, but you have touched my heart many times since then. I…I love you and I'm gonna be the best…" The doorbell rang. "…father you deserve. I won't ever let anything happen to ya. Okay?"

She nodded, slowly.

Bobby knew she wasn't fully convinced at this point and that was okay. Over time, he'd hope his daughter would come to trust him.

He stood up, straight. "Come on, I'd like ya to meet a friend of mine. She's real nice, you'll like her." Bobby headed downstairs, with Hazel, slowly following behind, a couple feet behind him.

Bobby opened the door and let a tall, thin, brown-haired woman inside. He took the bulked out paper bags of groceries from her, shutting the door with his foot. Hazel had stopped on the bottom step, watching her.

"You must be little Hazel," Jody smiled at the little girl, kneeling down, in front of her. "My name is Jody. I'm a friend of your dad's."

Hazel didn't respond. She had her right hand on the banister.

"Come on, sweetpea, it's at least polite to say, hello," Bobby told her.

In a low voice, Hazel greeted Jody with a small hello.

Jody stood up and the two adults headed inside the kitchen. Hazel followed, back a little ways. "You were right, Bobby, she does look like you."

Bobby set the bags on his kitchen table. "What is all this stuff?"

"I figured I would start you off on what a kid needs to eat in order to grow," she smiled. Hazel was climbing up, onto a chair to look inside, watching and waiting to see if her father yelled at her or not. When he didn't, she looked inside the bag. Jody pulled out a box of cereal. "I figured Kix cereal would be good for her and my little boy loved it."

"I don't wike Kix," Hazel stated.

"Oh my gosh!" Jody blurted out, suddenly, making Hazel hide underneath the table.

Bobby asked, "What?" sounding worried and confused.

"I hadn't noticed her teeth before," she replied.

"Huh?" Now he was confused. "What about them?"

"You haven't noticed either?" Jody asked.

Bobby was kneeling down, still looking up at her. "No, I haven't," he said. "What about them?"

"She's missing her two front teeth."

Bobby was surprised to hear that. Why hadn't he noticed before? He was talking to her, upstairs, a bit ago. "Come on out, sweetpea," he told Hazel. "Miss Jody didn't mean to scare ya."

Jody squatted beside him. "I'm sorry, sweetheart."

Hazel did not move again. She sat with her back to the wall, hugging her knees to her.

"It's okay, you're not in any trouble, I promise," Bobby assured her for the second time within the hour.

She shifted slowly, onto her hands and knees, and crawled out from under the kitchen table. Bobby pushed the two bags of groceries back and lifted Hazel up, to sit on the edge. He pulled a chair up and sat down.

"Can you say, all for me?" he asked of her.

Hazel, fearfully of what was coming, said, all, opening her month. Bobby lifted her upper lip to reveal the fact that both of her two, front teeth were missing.

He drew his hand back. "Are you already starting to lose your baby teeth, sweetpea?" he asked.

Hazel shook her head.

Jody pulled up another chair. "What happened to your front teeth?"

Hazel fidgeted in her seat, rubbing her hand in the other, in her lap. Her eyes were fixed downward.

Once again, Bobby understood. "Let me guess, it was Henry, wasn't it?"

She nodded, slowly, not lifting her head.

"Who's Henry?" Jody asked Bobby.

"Her stepdad," he answered, bitterly.

"What does her stepfather have to do with her teeth missing?"

Tears appeared in Hazel's eyes. "Henry hit me," she sniffled, softly.

"Oh, honey…" Jody took the little girl into her arms and hugged her.

Bobby was at a loss for words when Hazel didn't tense up or back away. "How come she didn't flinch with you?"

Jody was holding the kid on her lap now, holding her in her arms. "It was probably just her stepdad who abused her, so naturally it would be men Hazel would be afraid of. Her mom probably hugged and comforted her, like this." She stood up, lifting Hazel up with her. "Mind if I give her a bath before breakfast?"

"Sure, go ahead." Bobby was watching his daughter, who had immediately latched her arms around Jody's neck and laid her head on her shoulder.

"I bought clothes for her, too and all the hygiene stuff."

Bobby smiled at her. "Thanks, Jody, you're a lifesaver."

She shrugged, "What can I say, I love kids." Jody took Hazel upstairs, letting Bobby finish his research from earlier. It wasn't long before she called him up there.

Bobby came running up the stairs, two at a time and hurried over, stopping in the open doorway of the bathroom. "What is it?"

"Look," she told him. She had only removed Hazel's black T-shirt, so far. All over the kid's torso and upper arms were several bruises. Some even looked fresh. The look in his eye told Jody this was new to him. "Has she been hurting at all since she got here?"

"I reckon, with as many as she has, she's grown used to the pain," he shrugged. Tears were starting to form in his eyes and Bobby tried his best to hide them. He hurried away from the bathroom, going back downstairs, to his kitchen.

Bobby put the groceries away that Jody had brought, in the cupboards and fridge. When he finished, he decided to grab a bottle of beer. He hesitated at first, thinking of his drunken father. The pain and suffering, constant bottles littering the living room floor. The yelling and fighting. _No, Bobby! You can't think that way! You're nothing like that good-for-nothing old bastard! In fact, you're better than him. _

Bobby closed the fridge door and popped open his beer with a can opener. There was no way he would ever get drunk and beat his own kid. He never touched Sam and Dean, what difference did it make?

As Bobby took a drink, the same phone that rang last night, rang again. He went over and answered it. "Singer Salvage Yard, Bobby here."

"Hey Bobby, its Dean."

"Hey Dean," Bobby greeted the oldest Winchester brother. "You wouldn't believe the morning I had."


	3. Chapter 3

**I think I squeezed in too much in this chapter, wasn't expecting it to be this long. Thanks for reading and reviewing, by the way. I hope Hazel's dialogue isn't hard to read. Let me know if it is.**

**A Bobby Singer Story**

Chapter 3

Hazel refused the clothes Jody had bought for her. It took several minutes of pleading with her and Hazel still wouldn't give in. So, instead, Jody went and got some clothes out of her backpack, which were all jeans and T-shirts.

"She is defiantly your child, Bobby," Jody told him, coming down the stairs.

Bobby had just gotten off the phone with Dean and was still trying to research the Pagan gods for that hunter. "Why, what happened?" he asked, not looking up from the book in front of him.

"I just spent twenty minutes trying to get her agree to wear the clothes I got for her and Hazel still insisted on wearing her old clothes she had in her backpack," she explained. "I can tell where she gets her stubbornness from."

"Nothing wrong with that, the kid's just showing her own individualism," Bobby just shrugged.

Jody sighed, "I know, but I saw those clothes and thought they looked really cute for a five-year-old girl."

A creak on the stairs turned their heads. Hazel was coming down the stairs, her beyblade in one hand and a DVD case of _Beyblade _episodes in the other. She walked over to her father and placed the DVD case on top of his book he was reading.

"What's this?" he asked, looking at Hazel, as he picked it up.

"Can I watch it?" she asked, shyly.

Bobby looked it over in his hands. "Oh, this is a movie?"

She nodded.

He handed it back to her. "Sorry, sweetpea, I don't have a player for it. Got my TV fixed, though. Maybe Miss Jody can find you some cartoons to watch, if ya ask nicely."

Hazel set the DVD case back on the desk, not near her father's book this time and took another beyblade toy from her pocket, holding it out to him. "Can you play wit me?"

Bobby tried taking a hold of her shoulder, but Hazel backed away. "It's great you want me to play with you, but I have work to do. Maybe later after lunch and your nap."

"I don't t-take naps anymore, Mommy 'ays I'm a big girl," she said, silently, making her father smile.

"Yes you are and even big girls need their rest, too," he told her. "Shoot, I wish I could take one."

"Come on, I'll fix you a bowl of cereal for you," Jody smiled at her.

Hazel shook her head.

"How about some scrambled eggs and toast, then?"

This time, she nodded.

While Bobby took care of his research, including other hunters who called him, Jody kept Hazel occupied. After lunch and her nap, they worked on getting Hazel ready for school, seeing what she knew already. Jody soon learned that Hazel barely knew how to read. She knew her abc's and could count to ten, but when it came to actually reading the most simplest book, Hazel had a lot of trouble. Not only that, but after forty-five minutes, her attention span was starting to wander. Jody realized and let her go play.

Hazel scooted around and slid off the chair and took her beyblades into Bobby's study. She sat down on the floor, on her knees. Hazel attached each one to its launcher and ripped the cord out of each one, one at a time. The second beyblade hit the first when it dropped to the ground and both shot away from each other, continuing to spin. Hazel lied down on her stomach, placing her chin on top of her hand, watching her toys spin.

Bobby glanced up from his reading when he heard her launch her first beyblade. He watched her play for a bit, smiling at the scene. After watching for a few minutes, Bobby closed the book he was reading and stood up. He had been researching all day and his eyes were growing tired of it. It was time to spend some quality time with his daughter.

Bobby walked over and sat on the edge of the couch, beside where Hazel was lying on the floor again. When both beyblades had stopped spinning, she picked up one of them, reattaching it to its launcher. Hazel glanced up, finally noticing her father sitting there.

Her heart started beating faster in her chest. "Am I in t-twouble?"

He shook his head. "No, sweetpea, I thought you wanted to play?"

Hazel's eyes grew wider. "You…w-want t-too pway wit me?"

"You asked, right?" he shrugged.

Hazel stared at her father for a few moments before she held out her beyblade she was holding, out to him. Bobby took it and Hazel picked up the other one, reattaching that to its launcher.

"So, what is it you do?" he asked her.

"You pull the rip cord out weal-wee fast and try to make my beyblade 'pin out," she explained.

"What's pin out mean?"

"No, 'pin out," she corrected him.

"I don't understand, sweetpea," he told her.

"'Top 'pinning." Hazel was trying to say spin, but without her front teeth, she couldn't say S sounds. Bobby could tell she was starting to get frustrated, too.

Fortunately, Jody came to the rescue. She had already figured out what sounds Hazel couldn't say and knew what she was trying to say and explained it to Bobby. Bobby knew for the most part what Hazel had been telling him though. Jody also noticed she had a stutter, too.

"Okay, I'm ready," Bobby told his daughter.

"We go at the 'ame time," she explained.

"Okay," he said.

"One, two, tree, wet'er whip!" Hazel chanted before she yanked out her rip cord, followed by Bobby, afterwards. The two beyblades fell and bounced off the floor, landing upright. They spun around, fast, only hitting each other once. Hazel's beyblade stopped first while Bobby's spun for another ten seconds. "You win, Dad."

Bobby's head shot up when he heard Hazel call him that. "You called me, Dad," he said, surprised.

Hazel got scared, sliding backwards. "I taught tat was what y-you 'aid."

"I'm not mad, Hazel, in fact I'm proud. You've been here for only twelve hours and not once have you called me anything yet. I wasn't even sure if you knew what to call me." Hazel sat there, on her legs, twirling the part of the launcher that held the beyblade as she stared at it. Bobby continued. "Listen, I want to be there for you. I don't know anything about raising girls, but I do know what any kid need in life, a father that's there for them, and loves and protects them. I would never hurt you, Hazel, I promise. Now, I may give ya a swat or two when you act out but that's it. Heck, I can't even see you giving me any trouble."

"I'm a good girl," she said in a quiet voice.

It was loud enough where he heard her. "I know you are. Want to keep playing?"

Hazel finally looked up and nodded. She picked up the beyblade he was using and handed it to him, then picked up hers and reattached it.

"How do you reattach it, sweetpea?" he asked her, looking between the beyblade and launcher.

Hazel stood up, walking closer to him. She took the beyblade, launcher, and the rip cord from him and reattached it, together, before passing it back. Hazel stepped back, picking up the one she was using. "Do you have a big bowl?"

"For what?"

She hesitated, scared to ask. "I u-used t-to have a 'tadium for m-my beyblades, but then Henry 'mashed it with his foot. Mommy wet m-me use a bowl to fight."

Bobby smiled. "Well then, let's go look," he said, standing up. He went into the kitchen and looked through his lower cabinets, coming back with a large, shiny, metal bowl, blowing dust off it. It looked like it hadn't been used since his late wife was alive. "Will this work?"

She nodded, taking the bowl and set it on the floor. Hazel sat on her legs again and held her beyblade over the bowl as Bobby sat back down, picking up the beyblade he left on the couch. "One, two, tree, wet'er whip!" she repeated from before and yanked out the rip cord.

Bobby was slow again, about pulling his. Both beyblades were released, landing in the bowl with a loud clang. This time, the beyblades clashed with each other as they spun around the inside. The three of them watched. Finally, it was Hazel's beyblade who won this time.

"I win," she said, taking it out. "This b-beyblade has more 'tanima when it's in a 'tadium or bowl."

"Oh," Bobby nodded, even though he had no idea what that meant. "Interesting."

Jody couldn't help, but laugh at the scene. She stood up. "I'm gonna get started on dinner. Want to help, Hazel?"

Hazel shook her head.

"No, go on," Bobby told her. "I have to get back to my work, anyway." He placed the rip cord and launcher in the bowl. "We'll play more, later. Okay?"

Hazel sat there, feeling defeated. She really did not want to, but was afraid of making her father mad. He said he wouldn't hurt her, but it may have been an act to fool her. As soon as she made the wrong move or say the wrong thing, she would be in trouble.

"Come on, kiddo," said Jody. "It'll be fun."

She stood up, slowly after placing her launcher and rip cord in the bowl, and followed Jody into the kitchen. Bobby headed back to his desk.

While Jody browned the meat, she let Hazel pour the noodles from the box, into the pot of boiling water. Hazel was standing on a chair, back far enough where she could reach over but wouldn't get burned. Once dinner was ready, Jody showed Hazel how to set the table.

"Wow, this is good, Jody," Bobby complimented as after the first bite. "Thanks."

Hazel looked up at him, hurt. "I helped, t-too."

He smiled down at her. "And a big thank-you to you, too, Hazel."

To his surprise, a smile appeared on her face causing memories to come rushing back of a night he had forgotten. A simple one-night stand that Bobby didn't think much of…

**Five-six years prior:**

Dean and Bobby leaned against their cars just finished with hunting a shapeshifter. Both men were tired and wanted to sleep.

"Man, I'm getting too old for this," Bobby was saying.

Dean laughed with his hands in his jacket pockets. "What are you talking about? You're in great shape."

Bobby laughed, too. "Heard from Sam?"

"Not for two years, no." The men were serious now.

"Still away at college, huh," he said.

Dean nodded. "I'm gonna go find a motel and get some rest." He stood up, straight and opened the driver side door.

"Sounds good to me." Bobby walked around his truck to the driver's side. "Catch ya later."

"Take care, Bobby," replied Dean and got into the Impala.

Bobby got into his truck and both men took off.

Bobby drove for a few hours before stopping at a bar to have a drink. Getting out, he wandered up to the door and went in. Taking a seat at table alone, Bobby ordered a beer and just sat there to think. His thoughts were mostly of his late wife, Karen and what life would be like if she had never died.

A woman in her forties, with black, shoulder-length hair and brown eyes walked up. She wasn't thin, but she wasn't thick around the middle, somewhere in between. She wore a red dress that came to her knees and matching high heels. "Anyone sitting there?"

Bobby looked up at her. "No, go head."

She sat down across from him. "Sorry, no one else would talk to me. I'm not the most attractive one here," she explained.

"Don't worry about it," he smiled at her. "The name's Bobby, by the way."

"I'm Dinah," the girl introduced. "Do you live around here?"

"No, I live one town over, in Sioux Falls."

"What's brings you here to our neck of the woods?" she asked, curious.

"I was just passing through on my way home," Bobby explained.

"Ooh, were'd ya come from?"

"I was helping a friend with a job, sorry, personal stuff," he told her.

She nodded. "I understand." Dinah made small talk. "So, married? Kids?"

"My wife passed away, quite a few years ago. We never had any young'uns of our own."

"Did you want kids?" asked Dinah.

Bobby took a swig of his beer. "We thought about it, and had our talks now and then, but to tell ya the truth, I didn't."

"Yeah, kids are a big responsibility and are expensive," she nodded before taking a swig of hers.

"It wasn't the fact we couldn't afford it. We could, but what with how my father was, I didn't want to take the chance of me turning out like him. Kids deserve a father better than what mine was," Bobby shrugged.

"That's very wise."

"Technically though, I did practically raise two boys on my own though, after my wife died. They were a friend of mine's kids and I'd watch them while he went out of town on business."

Dinah smiled, the same one Hazel will have, "That's so sweet, I bet those boys love you like a second father."  
Bobby couldn't help smile at that. "One's away in college, the oldest is helping out his father."

The two talked well into the night, just sitting and talking, and drinking. By the time Bobby and Dinah realized the time, it was two in the morning. Dinah suggested he'd crash on her couch for the night since it was late. Bobby shrugged her off, thanking her but Dinah insisted.

Bobby followed her to her house, in his truck and Dinah made a bed for him on her couch. They continued their conversation from the bar and the next thing, Bobby knew he had woken up the next morning, underneath her, on the couch.

Very carefully, he slowly slid out from under her and quietly, but quickly got dressed, forgetting his hat there. Bobby felt guilty for leaving without a thank-you or good-bye, but the fact that he barely remembered what happened the night before and that they slept together, scared the crap out of him. Plus, there couldn't have been anything with this woman. Who's to say she would be possessed by a demon and Bobby would have to relive those horrid memories all over again. So, he never saw Dinah again after that night. How her sister knew where he lives, he hadn't the foggiest but now here Hazel was today. The result of an unplanned, one-night stand.

Bobby snapped out of his thoughts to Jody trying to get Hazel to eat her green beans who was refusing. He stepped into the conversation. "The rule in this house is you don't get to leave this table until everything on your plate is gone."

Tears were already running down her cheeks. "But I don't wike tem."

"I hate to be the tough dad on the first day, Hazel but that's the rule here," he told her, sternly, but as gentle as he could.

"I think that's a little too much, don't you think, Bobby?" Jody asked him.

"No, it's not," he said. "I said the same thing to Sam and Dean when they were kids. When Dean was seven, I found him the next morning, sleeping at the table once. After that, Dean ate his vegetables at my house, without any trouble."

Minutes flew by and the green beans on Hazel's plate were still untouched. Jody was washing the dishes while Bobby helped her. Hazel had her head resting against her left hand as she rolled the green beans around her plate with her fork.

When the dishes were done, Bobby walked Jody out to her car.

"Bobby, are you really sure you want to do this?" she asked him as they walked. "I could put a call in to CPS in the morning; find her a good foster home, maybe eventually an adopted family."

"You think that would be best for her?" he asked.

Jody shrugged. "She's five years old with history of abuse. Hazel may need counseling, not to mention speech therapy when her permanent front teeth come in." She stopped walking to fully face him. "Not only that, but she'll need a mom."

Bobby stared off to the side for a moment, and then turned back to Jody. "I can't just abandon my kid, Jody."

"It wouldn't be abandoning her, Bobby. What kind of life does she have out here with you?" she asked. "What about school? What about kids her own age?"

"I'll drive her to school, every day and she'll see kids in school," he shrugged.

"Look, I'm gonna contact the head of Sioux Falls CPS office and see what she thinks about it, in the morning, then I'll come check on you. Okay?"

Bobby didn't respond.

The two of them said good-night and Jody drove home. Bobby walked back into the house to check on his daughter. He walked into the kitchen to see her green beans still on her plate. Hazel was slouching in her chair, with her knees up to her. "Hazel," he said, slowly. "You need to finish your dinner."

She shook her head, not looking up. Hazel flinched when her father sat down, beside her.

"Look at me, for a sec, sweetpea," he told her. "Forget about the green beans for a minute."

Hazel turned her head, sideways to look at him.

He stared at his daughter, sadly. Finally, he asked, "do you want to stay here? Do you like it here, or would it be better for you if you went to go live with another family?"

"I tot y-you 'aid y-you wove me? I'll eat m-my gween beans." Hazel sat up, straight and began scarfing down her green beans.

"Woah there, I do love you, sweetpea, really I do. I just wanted to see what you wanted," he explained to her.

Hazel swallowed the last bite. "I c-can c-choose where to wive?" she asked.

Bobby nodded. "I want to be a great father to you, and sometimes being a father means letting their kid live with a family who has a mom and a dad, and a place where they can go to school and be a kid. If you want to leave, I won't be mad."

She stared up at him and noticed he had tears coming from his eyes. "You're crying, Dad."

"I am?" He had not realized he was and quickly tried to wipe them away.

Hazel turned around, on her chair to face him, fully, sitting on the edge. "Mommy 'ays, it's okay to cry. It helps you feel b-b-bet-ter." She had a little trouble getting the last word out.

Bobby had to smile when his daughter said that. "You can think on it, tonight and tell me, in the morning. You don't have to answer now."

"I tink I wike it here, I want to 'tay here wit you," she told him. "You are nicer ten Henry and you pway b-beyblade wit me."

"What about when I have to be the tough dad?" he asked.

"Will you ever use a belt?"

Bobby shook his head, "Just hand swats and they should hurt for half a minute."

"No more long pain?"

"Nope."

Hazel slid down from her chair and hugged her father around the middle. It caught Bobby off guard for a bit, and then he lifted her up and hugged her on his right shoulder.

"Are ya gonna help me be a dad, too?" he asked, half snickering as he held her.

Hazel lifted her head to look at her father and nodded.

"Glad to hear that," he smiled. "Wait, did you hear that?"

Hazel got scared, "What?" she asked, stepping back.

"Sounds like the Tickle Monster is coming to get ya." Bobby leaned towards Hazel with his hands out, ready to tickle her.

Hazel laughed, backing away. "How d-do you know Mommy and me's favorite game?"

"I used to play it with a little boy, about your age." Bobby stood up and Hazel tried to run. He chased after her, grabbing her around her waist, tickling his daughter, making her laugh as he held her in one arm. Hazel leaned her head back, laughing. Bobby kissed her cheek, continuing.


	4. Blueberry Pancakes

**A Bobby Singer Story**

Chapter 4

Early, the next morning right before the sun came up, Bobby was awakened to cries coming from down the hall. He got out of bed and headed for Hazel's bedroom, turning on the light.

Hazel was tossing and turning in bed. "No, Henry! I'm 'orry! I'm 'orry! No belt!"

Bobby hurried over and shook his daughter awake. "Hazel, wake up! It's just a dream, sweetpea. No one's hurting ya." He kept it up until Hazel shot awake. Tears were pouring down her face as she panted. Bobby sat down on the edge of the bed, facing her. "Hey, you okay?"

Hazel looked up at her father and jumped on him, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"It'll be okay," he assured her. "Henry will never step foot inside this house. He won't ever get ya." Bobby ran his hand up and down her back as he held her and kissed her head. Once Hazel had time to calm down, he asked, "Want to try to go back to sleep or are ya ready to wake up?"

Hazel slowly raised her head from her father's shoulder, wiping her nose on the back of her hand. "Wake up," she said.

"Well then, after a rough awakening like that, how about pancakes for breakfast?" he smiled at her.

Hazel smiled, too, wider. "I wove pancakes!"

Bobby stood up, shifting his daughter to his hip. "Pancakes it is," he announced and carried her downstairs.

Bobby let Hazel help, letting her stir as he poured the ingredients into the bowl. They had no idea they were being, secretly watched by a certain angel.

"Do you have bwuebear-wees, Dad?" Hazel asked, looking up from stirring. "I wove bwuebear-wee pancakes."

"Let's look." Bobby went to the fridge and opened it, looking around. "Doesn't look like…" A small basket of blueberries appeared on the top shelf. He looked around his house. "Cas, you there?"

There was no answer.

Bobby continued to scan the kitchen.

"Who's Cas?" Hazel asked.

Bobby reached in and grabbed the basket of blueberries, shutting the fridge. "A friend of mine." He ripped the plastic off and set it on the counter. "How many you think we should put in?"

"All of tem," she replied, excited.

He snickered. "We can't put all of them in there, silly."

"Um…?" Hazel thought for a moment. "Twelve."

"Can you count them?" Bobby challenged.

Hazel nodded and started counting as she placed each blueberry into the batter. When she counted to ten, she stopped. "I don't know what c-comes after ten."

"Eleven," he told her and Hazel repeated it, placing another one in the batter, "And twelve." She repeated the last number as she placed the last blueberry in there and stirred it together. Bobby cooked each pancake in a frying pan, on the stove. He had Hazel stay back so she wouldn't get burned.

Once the pancakes were ready, Bobby placed three each on three plates, placing the third on the other end of the table from them.

Hazel climbed onto a chair, sitting back on her legs. "Who's that plate for?"

"In case someone else wants to eat," he replied, pouring syrup onto her pancakes before he poured some onto his. "Would you like some milk?"

"Yes, pwease."

Bobby poured her a glass of milk, setting it beside her plate, and then sat down beside her, to eat. "Should probably get ya in school soon, do you know what grade you're in?"

"I started kindergarten, tis year," Hazel replied, tearing off a piece with her fork.

"How do you like school?" Bobby asked.

"It's hard and the tea-ter goes t-too fast."

"Maybe the school around here will be better," he told her. "How about we go down there and get ya enrolled today and you can start on Monday."

"Do I have t-to g-go t-to 'chool?" she asked.

Bobby nodded. "That's your full-time job until you're an adult and then you can join the workforce."

"What's your job, Dad?"

"Me, I fix cars and try to get'em running again," he answered.

Hazel stared at her plate, sadly.

"What's wrong, sweetpea?" Bobby asked. "Why ain't ya eating?"

"Henry fixed c-cars, t-too."

Bobby reached out to rub her upper back, from side to side. Even though Hazel was starting to trust her father, a little, she still tensed up when touched. "Two people can have the same job and be totally different from each other." There was a knock on the front door. Bobby looked over in that direction. "Who could that be, this early in the morning?" He stood up.  
"Sit tight and eat. Don't move."

Bobby cautiously walked towards the door and very carefully, opened it a bit, to peek out. His hand was stretched out, towards a rifle.

"It's me, Bobby," said Jody, who was in her sheriff's uniform. "Sorry to bother you, this early. This is Anita Bardwell, head of Child Protective Services. I told her of your situation, including your age and marital status and she feels, placing Hazel in a foster home would benefit her."

Bobby opened the door wider. "Hazel and I already came up with the decision of her staying with me."

"What could a man your age, Mister Singer, do for a young child like her?" asked Anita.

"Gee, I don't know, maybe be a father to her, like she needs," he told her, sarcastically. "Last time I checked there was no age limit on being a parent and I feel fine, physically."

"No there isn't but looking at just your yard, I don't see a safe environment for your child to live," she said. Anita was a short, pudgy person, with her dark brown hair in a tight bun and glasses upon her face.

"I basically raised two boys with my yard looking like that and they never got hurt. Hazel will know what and what not to do once I explain to her. Give me a damn chance!"

"Mister Singer, there is no reason to be upset," she told him. "There will be three strikes. After the three strikes are up, I will take Hazel and place her in a foster home."

"Trust me, that won't be necessary," he said.

Anita ignored him. "You must enroll her in school and keep her medical and dental exams up-to-date, and make sure she is taken care of, including hygienically."

"I know how to raise a kid, just so you know."

"With that kind of attitude, I suspect to be here by next week."

Jody cleared her throat to acknowledge she was still there. "Mind if we say hello to Hazel?"

"Sure," he shrugged before calling for Hazel, back over his shoulder.

Hazel hurried over to her father, thinking she did something wrong. "Am I in t-twouble?"

"No, you're not in trouble," Bobby told her. "Come say hello to Miss Jody and Miss Anita."

Hazel hurried over to give Jody a hug who kneeled to her level.

"So, you want to stay with your dad, sweetheart?" Jody asked, afterwards.

She nodded. "Guess what!"

"What?" Jody replied.

"Dad and I made pancakes for bread-fix."

"Sounds yummy," she smiled.

"Are you 'pending the day here again?" Hazel changed the subject.

"I can't, I have to work today, but maybe another day. Okay?"

The little girl nodded, sad that Jody wouldn't be there that day.

Jody gave her a kiss on her forehead and stood up again. They exchanged good-byes and the women left. Hazel stepped back into the house and Bobby shut the door. When Bobby and Hazel returned to the kitchen, they noticed the third plate was clean, aside from the syrup.

"I tink your friend was here, Dad," Hazel inquired when she was sitting on her chair again.

Bobby looked over at it and smiled. "I think you're right, sweetpea."

After they finished eating and Hazel helped her father with the dishes, Hazel took a bath. While she played in the water, Bobby headed back downstairs and tried calling out to Castiel, keeping his voice low enough so Hazel wouldn't hear. He was still debating on telling his daughter that he had a friend who was an angel.

It's been several weeks since Bobby saw Castiel. Well, everyone, actually. Dean had made a life with an old girlfriend, named Lisa and her son, Ben, and Sam was down in the cage with Lucifer, Michael, and his younger, half-brother, Adam. So, why Castiel was there, now, Bobby wasn't sure and he wanted to find out.

"Cas, I know you're there," he called out. "Show yourself."

There was no answer at all.

"Kind of rude, don't ya think?"

Still nothing.

Bobby sighed. "Just thought we could chat, catch up. You're welcome for the pancakes, by the way."

Nothing.

Bobby gave up. He happened to look over to see his daughter standing there, dripping wet and naked.

"Who are y-you talking t-to, Dad?" she asked, looking around.

"Kid…" Bobby shook his head. "Didn't I say, wait for me? What if someone was here?"

"I heard a noise outside the window," she told her father.

"Probably that cat that's been wandering around," he assured her. "Come on, let's go get ya dressed."

"Okay, Dad." Hazel turned and ran back up the stairs, with her father following behind, shaking his head.

"What did I get myself into?" he mumbled under his breath as he climbed the stairs.


	5. Doctor

**A Bobby Singer Story**

Chapter 5

Bobby drove into town to the local doctor's office. He had had a hard time, getting his daughter near his truck, much less inside of it. Bobby had told Hazel that he was taking her to the doctor's which she wasn't too thrilled about that neither. She acted scared and begged not to go, but he explained to her, in terms she could understand, that in order for them to make sure she was healthy, they had to go. Bobby thought he was in the clear until they walked outside and Hazel saw his truck.

She stood there, rooted to the spot, clutching her toys as she stared at it.

Bobby opened the driver's door, turning back to let Hazel in first. He had noticed the sudden fear in her eyes. "What's wrong?"

Hazel continued to stare at the pick-up truck, her chest moving rapidly. Suddenly, she started to hyperventilate.

Bobby hurried over, kneeling to her level and placed his hands on her upper arms. "Hey, take it easy. Deep breaths, nice and slow. That's it."

Hazel calmed down a bit, but the tension was still pretty strong.

"What's the matter, sweetpea?" her father asked.

Tears fell from her eyes as she continued to stare at the pick-up truck. Bobby stood and lifted Hazel up, into his arms and carried her over to set her on the seat. The moment, he tried to set her down, Hazel started screaming and latched onto his neck.

"Hazel, calm down," Bobby tried coaxing her. "No one is hurting you. We're just going to the doctor's." He thought it was still about going to see the doctor when it was actually the truck Hazel was afraid of. Bobby had no clue on what to do. "It's gonna be all right, I promise." Bobby rubbed her back, up and down. Every time he tried to set her on the seat, Hazel would scream again. "We're gonna be late if we don't get a move on, Hazel. I know you're scared but there's nothing to be afraid of. I am right here with ya and I won't let anything happen to you." He then set her down, on the seat and had her scoot over, helping with her seatbelt when he got in.

Now, as Bobby drove, Hazel sat there, almost tectonic. She had barely moved since they left his house. Hazel just stared out her window, chewing on her lower lip.

Bobby leaned on his elbow, on his door. Fatherhood was not so easy and it's only been a couple days. At least Hazel had opened up to him, a little and was talking to him. That had to be a plus for someone with a background like she had. There were still things to consider, though, and Bobby was not looking forward to the doctor's appointment. To him, if Hazel was this scared before they even got there, he didn't want to even think about what she was going to be like when they got there.

"Hey, um," Bobby finally broke the silence. "If you do a good job at the doctor's, maybe we'll get a cheeseburger from McDonalds or something. How's that sound?"

Hazel didn't respond.

"If you don't like cheeseburgers, we could get pizza."

Still nothing.

Bobby switched hands on the steering wheel and reached over to rub her shoulder blade. "Hazel?"

Hazel flinched, shutting her eyes, tight.

Bobby pulled his truck over, putting it in park. "Hey, it's just me, sweetpea. It's okay. Did you hear what I said? We can go out to eat after the doctor's, if you want. We can go anywhere you want."

Hazel suddenly looked up, staring out her window like she was listening to someone standing there. Bobby saw her nod and then looked over at him. "Yes, Dad?"

Bobby glanced up at her window. There was nothing there that he could see, but he had a feeling there was. He let it go for now and repeated what he had said before.

Hazel nodded, slowly. "Okay."

Bobby put the gear into drive and, after checking to see if any cars were coming, pulled back onto the road. He finally arrived at the local doctor's office and parked beside a small tree. Bobby opened his door and stepped out, putting his keys in his pocket before lifting Hazel out. Once he grabbed Hazel's folder of important papers off the dashboard and had shut his door, Hazel took a hold of his hand as they crossed the parking lot.

When they stepped onto the sidewalk, Hazel hurried up to open the door for her father, who thanked her, along with an elderly lady who was using a walker. Once the lady was inside, Hazel ran to catch up to her father, standing in line already. She gripped his leg, tightly, looking around at all the strangers.

Bobby turned his head, behind him when the lady with the walker had said something to him, he didn't hear. "Excuse me?"

"I said, what a nice granddaughter you have there," she smiled, sweetly.

"No, she's not my granddaughter," Bobby explained to her. "Hazel is my daughter."

"Hazel, such a pretty name, where's her mother?"

"She passed away a few days ago."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that." The lady just continued to smile at Hazel, sweetly, who had her head against her father's leg. When it was their turn, Bobby signed his daughter in and was given some forms to fill out. Bobby walked over to an empty chair and sat down. Hazel climbed up, into the chair next to him.

"Why don't you go play with those other kids over there?" he suggested to her.

Hazel shook her head and took her beyblades out of her jacket pockets. She had left the launchers at home per her father's orders and just battled them by hand, making noises, herself as she crashed them, together.

Bobby referred to Hazel's important documents as he filled out the forms. "Wow, your mama was organized, wasn't she?" he inquired, skimming through them. There was even a copied page of a doctor's form, Dinah had previously filled out. All Bobby had to do was copy it over, except the address and phone numbers. Once all of the paperwork was filled out, Bobby took it back up to the receptionist behind the front desk, before returning to his seat, picking up a magazine.

They didn't have long to wait before Hazel's name was called. Hazel squeezed her father's hand as they were lead back, behind the front desk, to a scale.

"Can I have you step on the scale for me, sweetheart?" the nurse asked Hazel, politely. She had short, black hair and looked to be in her late twenties. She had on sea foam green scrubs, too.

Hazel looked up at her father, who nodded. She let go of his hand and slowly, stepped up, onto the scale where the nurse checked her weight and height. The nurse wrote the measurements down, then had Hazel stand on a piece of tape on the floor and covers both eyes, one at a time to check her vision. She passed with flying colors.

Once the scale and vision tests were complete, the nurse led them to a small room with a bed that had paper on it, a counter with a sink, and other things one would find in a doctor's office. Bobby lifted his daughter up to sit on the foot of the bed as the nurse shut the door.

"So, is this a normal check-up?" she asked Bobby.

"Yeah." Bobby then explained the situation of Hazel's aunt dropping her off and what needed to be done so Hazel wouldn't be taken from him.

The nurse checked Hazel's blood pressure, which freaked her out when it started tightening up. "It's okay, sweetheart. It won't take long," she assured her. When Bobby was finished talking, the nurse left, telling them, the doctor would be in shortly.

"Is i-it over y-yet?" Hazel asked. "Can we g-go?"

"Not yet, the doctor has to come in and do their evaluation," he explained. "That was just the nurse."

"Am I g-gonna get a 'hot?"

"You mean a shot?" Bobby asked her.

She nodded at him.

Bobby shrugged, "I don't know, if the doctor feels it's time for you to have one, then probably."

"No, I don't want a 'hot," she said, shaking her head.

"Shots help you from getting sick, you don't want to be sick, do ya?"

"But tey hurt."

Bobby rubbed her back, affectionately. "I know they do, sweetpea. I will be right here if they do have to poke ya."

After waiting for ten minutes, another lady came in. "Hello there," she greeted, shutting the door.

"Hello," Bobby said in return and had Hazel say hello, too.

She had long, blond hair and black-framed glasses. She wore a white coat over dark blue scrubs. "I'm Doctor Stafford, and I will be your doctor. What's your name, little one?"

Hazel looked up at her, not saying a word.

"Shy one, huh?" Doctor Stafford winked. The doctor walked over to set her clipboard on the counter and took her stethoscope from around her neck. "Is it okay if I listen to your heart?"

Hazel nodded.

Doctor Stafford placed the ear buds in her ears and walked over to where Hazel was sitting, placing the other end on her chest. She listened for a few seconds before switching to another spot, and then she moved to Hazel's back. "Can you breathe in and out for me?"

Hazel took in some air and let it out. They repeated it, three times before the doctor removed her stethoscope and placed it back around her neck.

Doctor Stafford unhooked the otoscope from the wall, hooking a cone onto it. "Have there been any problems, lately, any illnesses or anything like that?"

"Like I told the nurse, I just found out she existed about two days ago," Bobby shrugged. "Her mama passed away and her sister dropped Hazel off in the middle of the night without any explanation."

Doctor Stafford looked in Hazel's left ear first and switched to the other, walking around the bed. "Nothing came up over the last two days?"

"Nope, none at all, well, illness-wise, anyway," he told her. "I already know that she was abused several times before."

"Did she have any bruises or marks on her?" she asked, checking the inside of Hazel's mouth.

"Uh yeah, quite a lot, actually where her shirt covers them."

Doctor Stafford threw away the cone part and hooked the otoscope back onto the wall. "Well, let's take a look. Can you take your jacket off, Hazel?"

Hazel froze, thinking she was getting a shot.

"I just want to look at your bruises, okay?" she assured her.

Bobby helped his daughter remove her jacket and placed it behind her.

Doctor Stafford lifted up her shirt and examined the bruises covering her whole torso. "Can you tell me how this happened, Hazel?"

Hazel didn't respond, she looked downward, instead.

"You're not in trouble, sweetpea. We just need to know what happened," Bobby told her.

Hazel looked up, at her father. "Henry hit me," she finally said.

"He hit you?" Bobby repeated.

She nodded.

"With what, do you remember?" he asked.

Hazel hesitated before she said, "His b-belt."

Doctor Stafford was checking Hazel's back now. "You said you got her two days ago?" she asked Bobby.

"That's right," he nodded.

"Most of these look fresh, like maybe she was hit that same day," she inquired. "Wait, what's this?"

"What's what?" Bobby asked.

The doctor lifted Hazel's shirt higher to examine what looked like a long scar. Bobby moved around the bed to get a look at it, too. "It looks like an old cut," she told him. The scar was between Hazel's shoulder blades.

"I would say, Hazel cut herself but how does someone get a cut on their back," said Bobby.

Doctor Stafford shook her head, "No, it looks like it could be a knife cut or some other kind of blade." She lowered Hazel's shirt back down. "Usually with abused children, we recommend taking x-rays, just to check to see if she has any internal injuries. Let me go see if it's available at the moment." The doctor left the room, shutting the door.

Hazel grew afraid of the word, x-ray. "What's an x-way?"

"The doctor's just gonna take a picture of what's inside of you, it doesn't hurt at all, I promise." At that moment, his cell phone rang. Answering it, he said, "Hello?"

It was Rufus. "Bobby, I could use some backup," he said. "I'm fighting a vampire's nest and there's too many for just one hunter."

"I'm a little preoccupied at the moment, Rufus," Bobby told him.

"Are you already on a hunt?" asked Rufus.

"No, I took my kid to the doctor."

There was a short pause. "A kid? Since when do you have a kid?"

"As of two days ago. Look, let me finish up here and I will drop her off at a friend's house and call ya then, okay?" he told the other hunter.

"Okay, but hurry up. This nest is the most dangerous one I have ever laid eyes on," Rufus replied.

They hung up. "Uh, Hazel, we're gonna have to wait until after I help a friend of mine to go out to eat," he told her. "As soon as we leave here, I'm gonna have to drop you off with Miss Jody."

"How wong will y-you be gone?" asked Hazel.

Bobby shrugged, "I don't know, but I will make it up to ya. Okay?"

Hazel nodded.

The doctor returned and led them to a dark room. Bobby couldn't go in as Hazel had x-rays taken. Once that was over with, they returned to the room and Doctor Stafford showed the x-rays to Bobby.

"There appears to be no bone damage, so that's good, and everything else looks fine," she explained. "I noticed before, though that Hazel is missing her two front feet."

"Hazel already told me that her stepfather had hit her," Bobby explained.

"Well, it shouldn't be a problem once her permanent teeth come in," she said. "How much does it affect the way she communicates?"

"I noticed, she can't say S and L sounds, and she stutters a lot."

The doctor made notes of what Bobby told her and finished up with the examination. "Okay, we're all set. We just need to give her, her yearly vaccine and you can go. I will be right back." Doctor Stafford left and came back, five minutes later with a tray of what she needed to give Hazel her vaccine.

When Hazel saw the needle, she scooted back, quickly, messing up the paper in the process. Her little heart was beating fast. "No 'hot! No 'hot!" Tears were already starting to swell in her eyes.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart but it's required for you so you can be healthy," she told her, tearing open a wet gauze pack. "Dad, you might want to hold her."

Bobby quickly put his arms around his daughter as she tried to fight back. He held her head against him as Doctor Stafford rolled up Hazel's sleeve and wiped her upper arm with the wet gauze who was already crying.

Throwing the wet gauze away, Doctor Stafford prepared the syringe.

Bobby was trying to calm his daughter down. "It's all right, sweetpea. It's gonna keep you from getting sick."

"No 'hot, Daddy! No 'hot!" That was the first and only time so far, that Hazel had called him, daddy and it broke his heart to put her through this. It was necessary, though.

"It will only hurt for a bit, it's just to help you," he kept assuring her.

Once the doctor had the syringe ready, she walked over to the bed and rerolled up Hazel's sleeve that had fallen. With just a small, tiny prick, Hazel was crying at the top of her lungs, jerking her arm away.

Bobby tried to hold his daughter still, which was no easy task. The doctor tried again, this time getting it in as Hazel continued to cry out. He kissed the top of her head as he comforted her.

"We're almost done, Hazel," said Doctor Stafford.

"No more!" she screamed, starting to cough now.

"Hazel, settle down before you make yourself throw up," Bobby tried to tell her as calm as possible.

After a few seconds, Doctor Stafford removed the needle and placed a cotton ball on it to stop the bleeding, asking Bobby to hold it. She disposed of the syringe and opened up a Band-Aid with Elmo on it, placing it over the puncture hole on Hazel's arm. "There, all done," she smiled, sweetly.

Hazel was still crying her eyes out. Bobby lifted her up, into his arms and rubbed her back. They finished up the visit before Bobby carried his daughter out, after putting her jacket back on. Hazel cried on her father's shoulder the whole way out to his truck and cried some more when she saw it. Bobby didn't want to be firm with her at that point when she was upset, but he had to get to wherever Rufus was.

While he was driving, Bobby called Jody to ask if he could drop Hazel off with her, telling her it was an emergency. Since it was a slow day, Jody agreed, telling him that she could probably request the rest of the day off.

Once Bobby had dropped his daughter off, giving Jody money to get Hazel a cheeseburger or something for having to receive a shot, he took off, calling Rufus.


	6. Chapter 6

**A Bobby Singer Story**

Chapter 6

Rain was coming down as Bobby drove back from helping Rufus with the vampire nest. It had taken way longer than he had anticipated. It took a couple days just to drive up there, and when he did meet up with Rufus, the vampires had moved to a different location and the hunters had to track them down. Killing the creatures weren't easy, either. There were several of them and they meant business. It was an all-female group, killing men and taking their girlfriends into their group. It had been going on for two years and Rufus had come across it in a daily newspaper, looking into it to see if it was anything supernatural. Sure enough it was, but soon realized he needed back-up, which was why he called Bobby in.

Bobby felt badly for leaving his daughter for that long with Jody. Jody had a job and her own life to deal with. Besides, he really did miss the kid. Like he had told Hazel, she really was growing on him and Bobby really was liking the idea of being a father. The truth was deep down he knew Hazel would probably be sucked into the hunting world. He was a hunter himself and dealt with the supernatural stuff on a daily basis. What would he do when Hazel was afraid of the thing in her closet or under her bed? Should he lie and say what other fathers tell their children? There's nothing to be afraid of, monsters aren't real. Yeah, that would be great to say but the truth was, Bobby knew that monsters were real and there was a possibility that something could live in her closet or hide under her bed.

Bobby turned the radio up, letting music fill the truck. Thoughts of seeing his daughter again crossed his mind as he thought about Karen. It didn't feel right to him. Karen had talked to him about having kids of their own but Bobby always said no. Yes, he loved them but just the thought of him turning out like his own father scared him that it was best if they didn't have any at all. Now, here he was, the woman whom he loved more than anything else in the world gone and a child of his own.

He rubbed his forehead with the hand he was leaning on as Bobby drove, splashing through puddles in the middle of the road. By three-thirty, Bobby pulled into Jody's driveway, behind her car. Shutting the engine off, he opened his door and stepped out. It had stopped raining for a moment as Bobby walked up the walkway to the front door and rang the doorbell.

After a few seconds, Jody answered the door. "Bobby, where have you been? Mrs. Bardwell came by today. She already took a strike and if you didn't come home by tomorrow, she would take Hazel."

"I said I would be back, I had to help a friend," he told her.

Jody let him in, shutting the door behind him. "I don't know what it is you do for a living, but now that you have Hazel, it's going to have to stop." She lowered her voice. "Hazel thought you hated her and wasn't coming back. The other day, she had a meltdown how no one loved her, because everyone was leaving her."

Bobby stared at her, surprised. "She did?"

She nodded.

"Where is Hazel?"

"In the living room, watching _Brother Bear_." Bobby followed Jody into the living room, where Hazel was lying on the couch, on her stomach. When she looked up and saw her father standing there, she sat up, onto her legs.

"Y-you came b-back?" Hazel asked. "Does tis mean y-you 'till wove me?"

Bobby nodded, "Of course, sweetpea. The business I had to take care of just took longer then I expected."

Hazel slid off the couch and ran over to her father, grabbing onto his legs. Bobby lifted her up and hugged her as she latched onto his neck. Jody left the two of them alone to pack up everything she had bought for Hazel since Bobby didn't leave any of her stuff with them.

Hazel had her head on her father's left shoulder. "I missed y-you, Dad."

Bobby rubbed her back, up and down, slowly. "I missed you, too. I didn't want to be gone that long but my job never has a set time and I never know how long it will take," he explained to her.

She moved her head to look at him. "Did y-you have to fix a c-car?"

Bobby hesitated, answering that. He wasn't sure what to tell his daughter. Should he lie and tell her, yes he was fixing a car, or tell her the truth? Hazel was only five years old, did she even know what a vampire was, even from watching TV? He remembered finally that Sam didn't know about the supernatural at this age. On the other hand, Sam had to go snooping in his father's journal to find out. Bobby didn't want for his daughter to have to do that, just to find out what was really happening around her. Plus Sam mostly grew up in motel rooms with just his brother. Hazel would be growing up at Bobby's house where several hunters would be coming in and out, and Hazel was bound to start asking questions sooner or later.

Bobby had never felt so confused and torn in his entire life. He wanted his daughter to be a kid, but he also didn't want to lie to her. Finally, Bobby said, "I was just helping a friend." It wasn't a lie. He really was helping a friend. He just didn't tell her the whole truth. Half the truth was better than lying all together, right? Bobby kneeled in front of the couch, sitting Hazel down on it. "I heard you had a meltdown the other day with Miss Jody."

Hazel's eyes grew wide. "She t-told y-you? Does tat mean I'm getting a 'panking?"

He shook his head, "No, you're not getting a spanking. I understand why you were upset, I should have called." Bobby took each of her hands in his, rubbing them with his thumbs. "Remember this, sweetpea, no matter how long I'm gone, I will always come right back. I would never abandon you. Fathers who do that are idjits. I said it once, and I will say it a thousand more times, I will always love you, no matter what. There is nothing you can do to make me love ya any less, I promise."

"Mommy 'aid, y-you weft her witout 'aying good-bye," Hazel told him.

Bobby looked down, his eyes closed. When he looked up, again, he replied, "I didn't actually know your mama." He sighed. "You're too young to understand now, so I will explain it to you when you're older."

"Did y-you wove Mommy?" she asked.

"Hazel, did you not hear me? I said, I didn't know her."

"Was I a mi-cake wike Henry 'aid?" Tears started swelling up in her eyes.

Bobby shook his head, "No, no, I'm very glad you were born." That right there was basically a lie. Not to say, he didn't love his daughter. He just didn't want her living the life he lived and was living now. He'd give anything to give his kid a normal, loving life. Who was Bobby kidding, though? Maybe putting his daughter up for adoption was the best thing for her. After giving a speech on never abandoning her, he couldn't do it now, even if he wanted to. The kid already had one meltdown, who's to say, Hazel wouldn't have another.

Hazel looked away from her father as tears poured from her eyes.

Jody came back down, carrying a red and black _Beyblade_, rectangular suitcase with wheels. "I had to take her shopping so she wouldn't have to wear the same clothes and I got her some toys to play with." She walked over and stopped the movie, placing it in its case and picked up a stack of DVDs from on top of the DVD player. "The DVD player in the guest room hardly ever gets used so I'm giving it to you so Hazel could watch movies. She picked out some of my son's old movies of his to have, as well."

Bobby stood up, facing her. "Thanks again, Jody for watching her for me."

She shrugged, "It was no problem until Mrs. Bardwell found out."

"It won't happen again," he assured her before looking down at his daughter. "Ready to go home, Haze?"

Hazel stood up and Jody handed Bobby the suitcase.

"Can you tell Miss Jody thank-you for letting you stay here while I was gone?" Bobby told his daughter.

Hazel walked over and gave Jody a hug, thanking her.

Jody walked them out. "You know, Bobby, to tell you the truth, it was nice having a child around the house again. Hazel is a pretty good kid, you're lucky to have her."

Bobby smiled at that. He watched as Hazel ran out of the house and jumped into a water puddle. Water flew up to her knees, soaking her jeans. "Well, I better go before it starts raining again."

"Bye, Bobby." Jody gave him a friendly hug. Bobby walked down the walkway, to his truck, opening his door. He set Hazel's suitcase on the floor, on the passenger's side before calling Hazel over. She froze when she saw his truck again. That was when Bobby realized, it was his truck that scared her. "Sweetpea, are you afraid of my truck?"

Hazel nodded, slowly not saying a word.

"What is it that you're afraid of?" Jody had walked over to them when she saw Hazel freeze.

"Henry dr-ives the 'ame t-truck," she admitted.

Bobby couldn't believe it. Another thing he had in common with the bastard that abused his child? What the heck was going on? Did Dinah have a thing for guys like Bobby, or what? "Well, after today I will drive my other car, how's that?"

Hazel nodded, "Okay."

"But you're gonna have to ride in my truck, one more time so we could get home," he pointed out.

She walked over and started climbing in. Bobby helped her and got in the truck, himself. Hazel stood up on her knees to pull down her seatbelt and sat flat, on her bottom to fasten it. "Dad, I did it all by myself."

"Good job, kid," he praised her, happily.

"You should really look into getting Hazel a booster seat and make sure she sits in the backseat, too," Jody said.

"It's fine, none of my cars have airbags in them," he shrugged. "I will get her a booster seat, though." Bobby shut his door and started the engine, backing out of the driveway. As he drove home, Bobby got an idea and stopped at a local Wal-Mart, parking close to the entrance.

Hazel slid over to his side when Bobby had gotten out. "I thought we were going home?" she asked.

"We are, but since it's raining, I figured tonight would be the perfect evening to have hot chocolate and make s'mores over the stove," he explained, helping her down and shut his door.

"More what?"

Bobby chuckled, "That's what they're called, S'mores." They started walking up to the store as Hazel took ahold of his hand.

"Why?"

"'Cause you always want more." They went inside the store and got what they needed, paying for the supplies at the check-out.

When they finally returned home, Hazel took her bath, getting ready for bed, and Bobby fixed macaroni and cheese for dinner as Hazel sat at the kitchen table playing her new game, Jody had bought for her. It was a handheld, learning game which Hazel loved. At the moment, she was playing a _Ni Hao Kai Lan_ game. "Dad, what's five plus two?" she asked, looking up from her game.

"Figure it out," he shrugged, stirring the noodles as they cooked. "If ya had five cookies and I gave you two more, how many would ya have then?"

Hazel thought about it and then just shrugged. "I don't know."

"Count to five, then," Bobby told her.

She counted to five.

"Now, add two more to that," he said.

"'ix, 'even…'even?"

Bobby nodded, "That's right." Once the noodles were tender, Bobby drained the water in the sink and mixed the rest of the ingredients in with them, making a bowl for him and his daughter. "Turn your game off, sweetpea, dinner's ready."

"Can I finish this wace, Dad?" she asked him.

There was a knock on the front door. "Finish up while I get the door," he told her, going to answer it. "And don't even try to start another race before I return." Bobby walked over to the front door and opened it. Who was standing there, surprised him. "Sam?"

"Hey, Bobby."


	7. Sam's Return and S'mores

**A Bobby Singer Story**

Chapter 7

Bobby couldn't help hug Sam when he saw him on his doorstep. Sam was alive and not in the cage being tormented by Lucifer. "It's great to see ya, boy," he told him. Sam returned the hug, but something wasn't right. It didn't feel like the way Sam hugs. "Well, come in. How did you get out?" Bobby closed and locked the door after Sam came in.

Sam shrugged. "I don't know. One moment I was in the cage, the next thing I knew, I was standing in a field, out in the rain."

"I have mac and cheese, I'm sure you must be hungry," Bobby told him.

He stared at the older hunter, an eye brow raised. "You haven't had mac and cheese since Dean and I were kids."

"Yeah well, that's one of the few things I remember kids like," he admitted.

Sam stared at him until he noticed someone peek around the wall. "Is that a kid? Who's is it?"

Bobby took in a deep breath and let it out. "She's mine."

Sam shot a look at the older hunter. "Yours, how?"

"Must we go into details? Not too keen on my five-year-old learning how a baby is made," he told him, sarcastically.

"No, I mean, how? I didn't think you dated, much less…you know." Even though Sam didn't seem his usual self, he still felt awkward about the whole thing around a little kid.

"Look, it was a one-night stand and I was drinking," Bobby shrugged. He looked back at his daughter. "You can come over, sweetpea. This here is a friend of mine I knew since he was your age."

Hazel walked over, cautiously and gripped her father's leg. Her eyes never left Sam.

"This little thing is Hazel," Bobby introduced. "Haze, this is Sam."

"Hi, Hazel," Sam told the little girl. Bobby found it odd that Sam had not smiled or showed any other emotion since he let him in. Sam looked at the older hunter again. "I came to see if you would join me on a hunt. There's been several brutal murders happening in Vermont and I figured you'd like to join me."

Bobby looked down at his daughter then back at Sam. "I can't Sam. I just got home from helping Rufus with a vampire's nest."

He shrugged, "So, that's a life of a hunter."

"I've decided to take an early retirement from hunting and just continue what I do, fulltime, getting calls from other hunters and helping that way."

"Why?" Sam asked.

"Sam, did Lucifer steal your brain cells or something? I'm a fulltime father now. It's not like when I was taking care of you and Dean. I'm one strike away from having Hazel taken away from me."

"But wouldn't that be a good thing? The kid would be better off with a normal family, living a normal life," Sam shrugged again. "I mean, isn't that what you told my dad once?"

"It's not like I'm thrusting the hunting gig on her. Trust me, Hazel will have her childhood." Hazel reached up and tugged on his shirt. Bobby looked down at her. "Yes, sweetpea?"

She gestured for his ear. Bobby kneeled down on one knee to be at her level and Hazel whispered to him, "I'm hungry. Can we eat now?"

"Of course," he told her. Bobby stood up again. "Care to join us, Sam?"

"Sure," Sam replied.

The three of them headed into the kitchen and Bobby served each of them.

"Have you seen Dean?" Sam asked while they ate.

"Not since that day," Bobby answered. "Talked to him on the phone, though, your brother's moved in with Lisa and her son. Working a normal job and living an apple pie life. I ain't never seen a hunter gain a life like that, able to just walk away."

Sam grinned for the first time since he arrived. "I knew I wasn't seeing things," he said.

"What do you mean?" asked Bobby.

"I ah went to see Dean first, see if he kept his end of the bargain."

"So what are you going to do, Sam? Quit, too? Maybe head back to college." Bobby took a bite of his dinner.

"No, I'm gonna keep hunting," he said. "I met some other hunters and they want me to join them."

"Sam, ain't cha the one who wanted out of it?" Bobby asked, surprised by Sam's response. "Isn't that why you went to college in the first place? For a normal life?"

He shrugged, "I just don't feel like a normal life anymore, you know. I mean, since I've been back, all I wanted to do was hunt."

Bobby just shook his head. "You are something, Sam."

After dinner, Bobby showed Hazel how to make the s'mores over the stove. The two of them held marshmallows on skewers over the fire until they were crispy as Hazel stood on a chair.

"Once they're toasted, you take a gram cracker and lay the chocolate on top, and then the marshmallow. Then you place another gram cracker on top to make a sandwich," he explained to her as she copied him. "Try it."

Hazel took a bite of hers. Crumbs fell onto the front of her shirt.

"How is it?" he asked.

She smiled a gooey, marshmallow smile. "It's yummy, Dad."

Bobby snickered. "Of course it is."

Hazel took another bite. This time some marshmallow got stuck to the bottom of her nose, making her father laugh.

"You got it on your nose, silly," he told her.

"I did?" she asked.

"Sure did."

That made Hazel laugh, too.

Bobby called to Sam in the other room. Sam had gone into Bobby's study to do some research on Bobby's computer. "Sam, want a s'more?"

"No thanks, I'm good!" Sam called back.

"You sure?" he asked. "You don't know what you're missing."

"I'm sure."

"Dad," Hazel said when the men were done talking.

Bobby acknowledged her, "Yes, sweetpea?"

"What's h-hunting?"

"Well, it's another job I do, only I don't get paid," he explained. He was regretting talking to Sam during dinner when Hazel was sitting in earshot. Why he didn't stop it, he had no clue. It was sort of a habit he guessed, to just talk about it.

"What do you do?"

"We help people from bad things."

"wike what?"

Bobby looked away, turning the stove off. "I can't tell you, Hazel."

"Why n-not?"

He took a deep breath and looked at her again. "Look, I'm going to make sure you have a decent childhood and if I tell you the truth, then you will not have one. It's okay to ask me questions about anything you want to know about, but not about my second job. Understand?"

Hazel nodded. "Am I in t-twouble?"

Bobby shook his head. "You're fine, sweetpea. Want some hot cocoa?"

"Yes, pwease," she answered.

Bobby made the hot chocolate on the stove, as well, and then put his daughter to bed. After the long week he had, Bobby was exhausted and decided to turn in. He was awakened several hours later by the sound of coughing, continuously. He got out of bed and headed down the hall to Hazel's room, turning the light on.

Hazel was lying in bed, on her back, coughing up a storm.

Bobby came into the room. "Sit up, sweetpea," he told her.

She sat up, coughing a couple times. "I don't feel good."

Bobby sat down on the edge of the bed and felt her forehead with both sides of his hand. "You do feel warm. I'll be right back, okay?"

Hazel nodded as he stood up and headed for the bathroom. He opened the medicine cabinet and took a thermometer and a bottle of children's cold medicine that Jody had bought when she dropped off the groceries. She wanted to make sure Bobby was prepared for everything.

Sam appeared in the doorway, half asleep. His eyes hadn't gotten used to the light yet. "What's going on?"

"Hazel's coming down with a cold, I think," he explained. Bobby walked by him, turning off the light. "Shouldn't have let her jump in those puddles." He was mostly thinking out loud with that last part. The weather was well into fall and the air had been very chilly. Not good weather to be wet in. The worse part about it was that he had just taken her to the doctor's. Hopefully, it was just a cold and nothing serious.

Bobby headed downstairs and grabbed a spoon from the kitchen, before heading back his daughter's bedroom. Sam had gone back to bed. Bobby sat back on her bed and set the spoon and medicine on the nightstand. He turned on the thermometer and had Hazel open her mouth before he placed it under her tongue.

"No more playing in puddles, okay?" he told her while they waited for the thermometer to beep. "At least until next spring when it warms up."

Hazel nodded.

The thermometer beeped after a few seconds. Bobby took it from his daughter and looked at the screen. "100.3," he read. "Yeah, you have a little bit of a fever." He reached over, setting the thermometer on the nightstand and picked up the bottle of children's cold medicine and the spoon, tearing off the seal and twisting the lid off. Bobby poured some into the spoon and very carefully moved it closer for Hazel to swallow.

Hazel made a disgusted face from the taste.

Bobby was screwing the lid back on. "What's wrong, sweetpea? It's cherry flavor."

"That's not cher-wee fwa-vor," she stated. "I don't wike it."

"Well, if medicine tasted good, it wouldn't work like it should," he told her. "Are you stuffed up, too?"

She shook her head, "No, but my body hurt. I wish Penny were here."

"Who's Penny?" he asked.

"My toy puppy," she answered. "Aunt Cora wouldn't wet me g-go back for her when I dropped her." Hazel quickly grew scared when she came to a realization. "What if Henry is being mean to her? Can we go back and get her?"

Bobby was surprised to hear his daughter, who was afraid of her stepfather to want to go back for just a toy. "You want to go back? What about Henry?"

"I'm 'till 'cared of him but Penny may be in t-twouble. Dad, we have to 'ave her." Hazel's anxiety was increasing more and more. Tears were swelling up in her eyes.

"Take it easy, kid," he tried to calm her down. "How about I get ya a new one? Maybe even a real puppy."

"I don't want a new puppy, I want Penny. Mommy gave Penny to me a wong time ago. Pwease, Daddy, can we go back?" She stared up at her father with sad, puppy-dog eyes.

It broke his heart to see his daughter so upset. "But what about Henry, I thought you were afraid of him?"

"But y-you 'aid you would-tent wet anyting h-happen t-to me."

Bobby sighed. "I don't even know where you used to live, how would I know where to go?" Technically, he had the address from the documents in Hazel's important papers folder. Hazel seemed very upset over this toy, though. "Listen sweetpea, it's just a toy."

"Penny is not just a toy, 'he's my bet friend!"

Bobby had not expected his daughter to snap like that. She was starting to get a little too worked up over this. He watched as Hazel lied down on the pillow and cried in a fetal position. Seeing her so distressed pained him but what could he do? There was no point in driving for God knows how far away she used to live. "I promise, I will get you another puppy, sweetpea."

Hazel was coughing again as she cried out. "I w-want P-Penny! I w-want P-Penny."

Bobby tried reaching over to lift her up to comfort her, but Hazel smacked his hands away and turned over to where her back was to him. He sat there, trying to find some word to say to help her feel better but nothing came to him. Instead, Bobby stood up and carried the medicine and thermometer back to the bathroom and placed them inside the medicine cabinet. He could still hear her crying when he sat down on his bed and ran his hands along his face. This had to be the hardest part of fatherhood, telling his child no. She really wanted this toy.

Suddenly, a book was thrown across the room, hitting him in the head. Luckily, it wasn't hard enough to cause any damage. It did hurt, though. Bobby looked around the room to see no one there. "Hazel, did you throw that?" he called. "I'll spank your bottom if ya did. Just because you're mad at me, doesn't mean you can throw something."

All he heard was her crying still and it sounded like she was still in her room. He then heard the EMF reader going off in the drawer of his nightstand. Throwing it open, Bobby grabbed it, holding it up as it went off, louder.

"Holy crap," he said, staring at it.

Another book flew across the room. This time, Bobby saw it and ducked. He stood up and scanned the room again. "Who are you? Show yourself!"

Once he said that, a woman appeared. Bobby recognized her as Hazel's mother. "Dinah?"

She glared at him, angrily.


	8. Dinah Returns and the Flu

**It took forever to finish this chapter thanks to writer's block!**

**A Bobby Singer Story**

Chapter 8

Bobby ran over and shut the door and turned back around to see the mother of his child standing there, glaring at him. He never guessed he would see Dinah again and here she was. "What are you doing here?"

"How could you be so heartless after all our daughter has been through?" she demanded of him.

Bobby couldn't believe what he heard. "Are you suggesting for me to drive all the way to your bastard of a husband's home just to pick up a toy?"

"It's not that hard and Hazel loves that toy," she stated.

"Look, I don't like it when Hazel is upset and it breaks my heart to see her this way but it's just a toy that can be replaced. She needs to learn that life isn't always fair and she can't always get what she wants."

With that, Dinah grew angry. She grabbed one of Bobby's hunting knives from the dresser and next thing he knew, Dinah had him up against the wall, shoving the knife towards him. Bobby tried to shove her arm back.

"Either you keep her happy or I will kill you!" she spat out, pushing the knife towards him.

"Don't you think I want Hazel to be happy, Dinah?" he asked of her. Bobby struggled with her until the door was slammed open and Sam was standing in the doorway, holding a shotgun. He shot at the ghost and Dinah disappeared into black smoke. Bobby stood there, trying to catch his breath. "Thanks, Sam," he told him.

"No problem, Bobby," Sam replied. "I heard your door slam and I rushed up here as soon as I found a shotgun. What was that?"

Bobby wiped his brow with his arm, leaning against the wall. "Hazel's mother."

Sam lowered his eye brows, "What did she want?"

"For Hazel to be happy," he said.

"What are you going to do?" Sam asked.

"Find out where she's buried and set her free," he shrugged.

"Do you need some help? I can get one of the other hunters to take that other job," Sam offered.

"Thanks, Sam." Bobby happened to look over and saw Hazel peeking around the wall. "What are you doing up, sweetpea?"

Hazel hurried over to her father and he scooped her up. "I heard a woud noise and I got 'cared," she whispered.

"Everything's okay now, sweetpea. Are you still mad about your puppy?" he asked her.

"Why c-can't you g-go 'ave Penny?" Hazel asked.

"Because it's just a toy and I doubt Henry will even let us in the house."

"You won't even try?"

Bobby shook his head. "I hate having to do this to ya, I really do. I said I would get a new one and I tend to keep that promise."

"But I want P-Penny, 'he need me." Hazel was starting to tear up again.

Bobby let out a sigh and turned to Sam, "Can you give us some privacy, Sam?"

Sam nodded, leaving the room and headed back downstairs.

Bobby stepped back towards the bed and sat down, setting Hazel on his lap. "I'm not trying to be a mean guy, okay? I can't just up and go get your toy…"

Suddenly, Hazel grew excited. "Penny!"

Bobby looked behind him. There on the bed was a stuffed animal of a Dalmatian puppy with a pink collar. Hazel climbed down from his lap and onto the bed, crawling over to the toy. She hugged it to her. He didn't know how it happened. Ghosts couldn't do that, could they? He let out an annoyed sigh. "Hazel, you got lucky this time but I mean it when I say when I tell you no, that is my final word. Understand?"

Hazel nodded up at her father. "Are you going t-to t-take Penny?"

He shook his head. "I have no idea how Penny even got here but it will not happen again."

"Maybe Mommy did it," she shrugged.

Bobby remembered that other day in the truck. "Can you still see your mama?" he asked her.

Hazel nodded. "Mommy 'ays we will be together forever and that 'he will always m-make 'ure I am taken care of."

"Do you mind if I ask how your mama died?" He hoped it wouldn't be too painful for his daughter to speak of and hoped Dinah died of natural causes, not that he was glad she was dead.

Hazel only shrugged, "I don't know. Mommy 'pent lot of time in the hot-pickle and I stayed home with Henry. Mommy wasn't there to protect me either so tat why 'he can't leave me now." She coughed a couple times, hoarsely.

"Well, Hazel I need for you to do something for me," Bobby told her.

"What?" she asked.

"The next time you see your mama, come tell me as soon as possible."

"Why?"

Bobby tried to think of the right words to tell her. "So we can help her let go and cross over into heaven."

"No, I don't want Mommy to weave me."

"Hazel, what did I just got done telling you about my final word?" he reminded her.

"But Mommy can't go, Daddy," Hazel told him. "Can't we all be a fam-wee?"

"Your mama died, sweetpea, there's nothing I can do about that but help her pass over. If she doesn't, something bad could happen to her."

Hazel's eyes grew wide. "What?" she asked worried.

Bobby paused. Where this conversation was headed didn't sit too well with him. However, since Hazel was already seeing her mother after she died, he guessed he had to. "Hazel, your mama is a ghost now. Do you know what a ghost is?"

"Yeah, 'cooby-Doo finds tem," she answered. "But it's always 'omeone in a mack."

"Well... Ghosts are real and like I said, your mama is one of them and when ghosts stay here for too long, they go mad and hurt people, sometimes unintentional."

"Mommy only hurt Henry, she wouldn't hurt anyone else. You're wong, Dad."

Bobby didn't argue with her. He couldn't, mainly because he was tired.

Hazel let a yawn escape, followed by a cough.

He smiled, "It's pretty late, huh. Want to sleep in here with me?" Bobby had his answer when she lied down on the pillow and immediately fell asleep. He stood up to turn off the lamp and lied down in his bed. Hazel snuggled up against him, cuddling her puppy to her. Bobby put his arm around her and closed his eyes, drifting off to sleep.

The next day, Hazel took a turn for the worse. It wasn't so bad she had to go to the hospital, though. Her fever went up a tad bit, but it wasn't nothing to be seriously worried about. It had just turned into the flu.

Hazel lied in her father's bed, shivering with the quilt up to her chin as she watched her _Beyblade _DVD. Penny was in her arms under the quilt. Bobby had let her stay in his bed when they woke up when he discovered she was sicker. He brought in the TV and hooked the DVD player up to it so Hazel could watch TV. She had been lying there ever since.

Bobby came in with a TV tray, setting it on the dresser. He picked up a bottle of flu liquid medicine, different from what he had given her the night before. Bobby unscrewed the lid, walking over to sit on the edge of the bed. "Can you sit up for me, sweetpea?"

Hazel sat up, slowly and weak. "My b-body h-hurts, Dad-dy and I feel h-hot and c-cold at the 'ame time."

"I know, sweetpea, I have some medicine for you to take, then after lunch I will give ya a nice warm bath." Bobby poured some of the medicine into a spoon and gave it to her, wiping a drip away at the corner of her mouth with his thumb.

Hazel shivered at the taste. "Tat's grosser ten the o-ter one."

Bobby stood up and went over to the dresser where he placed the TV tray and picked up a cup of orange juice, taking it back over to her. "Here, wash it down with some juice."

Hazel took the juice and chugged it down. When she was finished, Hazel held it out to her father, wiping her mouth on her arm. Bobby took and set it on the nightstand, bringing the TV tray over to her, placing it over her legs.

"I made you some soup my mama used to make for me when I was your age and wasn't feeling well," he told her.

Hazel picked the spoon out of the soup and took a bite of it.

Bobby sat back down, next to her. "How is it?"

"Weel-wee good!" she smiled up at him and continued eating the soup.

"I will come check on ya in half an hour and I will run the bath for you." Bobby kissed the top of her head and started to leave.

"Daddy."

He turned back around. "Yes, sweetpea?"

"Can I have more juice, pwease?"

Bobby smiled, "Yes, you may. Thanks for asking, nicely." He went back for the cup before he finally headed downstairs. Bobby went inside the kitchen, going to the fridge.

Sam looked up from the computer. "Hey Bobby, I found something on Hazel's mom."

Bobby was unscrewing the lid before he picked up the juice carton and poured some more juice into the cup. "Let's hear it."

"Dinah Spelding had her own housecleaning business. It says Dinah had to quit working about six months ago when she was diagnosed with cancer. She died in the hospital almost two weeks ago. And get this, Dinah's husband is now losing his mind, looking for her five-year-old daughter."

Bobby was standing on the other side of the desk now, holding the cup of juice. "Why is he looking for Hazel? I would think he would be happy she's not there anymore."

"I took a psychology course back in college. Abusers sometimes want to keep their victims with them because they feel powerless if they were able to escape," Sam explained.

"Then it's a good thing we didn't have to go back for her toy then. Does it say where's she is buried?"

"The obituary says she was cremated."

"What?" Bobby exclaimed. "Then how is Dinah still walking around?"

Sam shrugged, "I have no idea. She must have latched onto something. Does Hazel have anything that belonged to her mother?"

"Not that I know of," he answered. "The only things Hazel had brought with her were clothes and her be-blades."

"Her what?"

"Be-blades, I think they're called or something like that," Bobby explained. "They're like tops on steroids."

Sam raised an eye brow.

"It's a cartoon Hazel watches," he shrugged.

Sam returned to the computer screen. "Wow, cartoons are getting weirder and weirder."

"Tell me about it, when I was a kid all we watched was _The Flintstones, Smurfs, _and _Bugs Bunny_," Bobby said as he headed upstairs.

Bobby went inside his room where Hazel was lying down again, under the quilt. There were one bite left in the bowl and some broth. "All done?"

Hazel nodded, watching her cartoon.

"Here's your juice." Bobby handed her the cup of juice. Hazel sat up and drank it as he picked up the remote and shut off the TV and DVD player.

"Daddy, I was watching that," she protested.

"Since you're already done eating, you can take your bath now so you can take your nap, afterwards," he told her.

"But I want to watch _Beyblade_," she whined.

"Later, after you wake up." Bobby had to smile. "You must be comfortable with me if you're already starting to fight back with me."

Hazel giggled at that into her cup. She drank the juice and allowed her father to lift her up, into his arms and carried her into the bathroom. Bobby set her down on her feet and ran a warm bath for her.

Next, he sat down on the toilet lid and set Hazel on his right knee to help pull her socks off first. Then Bobby had her stand up again and unbuttoned her blue, long-sleeve, _Beyblade _pajama shirt. The bruises were just about healed up, by now which made Bobby glad. It pained him to see the bruises every time he bathed his daughter or helped get her dressed.

Hazel pulled her matching pajama pants and underwear off and went over to step into the tub. She stopped, pulling her foot back. "It's too hot," she told her father.

Bobby leaned over and felt the water. It did feel a little too hot, so he stood up and adjusted the temperature, kneeled on one knee beside the tub. Finally, Bobby got the temperature right where it should be and Hazel climbed in, sitting down in the water. Bobby sprinkled water over her body. "Is the water helping, sweetpea?"

"Not weel-wee," she admitted.

"Give it some time," he told her. "In the meantime, can I ask you something?"

Hazel nodded.

"Do you have anything that belonged to your mama?" Bobby asked.

"Like what?"

"Anything that was considered hers," he said.

Hazel thought for a moment and then shook her head. "Mommy did-tent wike me t-touching her 'tuff. 'He 'aid I would get a 'panking if I did."

"Your mama spanked you, too?" he asked, surprised. Bobby figured Dinah wouldn't have the heart with Henry beating Hazel around all the time.

"Not wike Henry, toe," she said.

"Well, I don't want ya touching anything here, either," Bobby told her. "I have weapons, like guns in this house and I don't want to catch you playing with them. Understand?"

Hazel nodded at her father.

"Guns can kill people and I don't want you shooting yourself," he continued. "Maybe when you're older I can take ya deer hunting."

"Okay," she replied.

Bobby didn't wash her hair or body since she had a bath the night before. When the water started cooling down, he let the water out and stood up, grabbing a green towel off the towel rack. Hazel stood up dripping wet and Bobby wrapped the towel around her, and lifted her out of the water. He sat on the toilet lid again and set Hazel on her feet. Bobby dried her off and got her redressed in her same pajamas.

"How come you like this cartoon so much?" he asked, curious.

Hazel shrugged, "I just weel-wee wike it. _Beyblade_ is c-cool."

Bobby finished buttoning up her pajama shirt. "How about we decorate your bedroom with, what's it called again?"

"_Beyblade_, Dad," she told him like it was supposed to be the most obvious thing in the world.

"Wise-cracking, huh?" He laughed. "Come here." Bobby tickled her all over, making her laugh which they say, laughter is the best medicine. Hazel squealed with laughter as he tickled her sides and stomach. Soon, Bobby lifted her up, sideways and planted a series of kisses on her cheeks. Hazel laughed some more as her father's beard tickled against them.

Bobby stood up and carried her down the hall to his bedroom and laid her down on his bed, covering her up with the quilt. Hazel reached for Penny, hugging it to her. "Sleep tight, sweetpea. I love you."

"I wove y-you, t-too, Dad," she replied, snuggling under the quilt.

Bobby kissed her, one last time on the forehead and headed back downstairs. Hazel fell asleep, five minutes later.


	9. Spilled Juice

**Sorry it took so long for me to update! I had a heck of a time finishing it. I just couldn't figure out an ending to this chapter. Until a couple weeks ago when I visited my family for the weekend and I got to watch some of season seven finally on Netflix and finally got to see the whole episode where Bobby dies. Pretty much, I was balling like a baby at the end but it did give me an idea on how to end this chapter. Hope it's worth the long wait! Let me know what you think of the ending!**

**A Bobby Singer Story**

Chapter 9

Bobby drank down a cup of coffee, tired from being up half the night with Hazel. The part of the flu he hoped she wouldn't catch started around one in the morning and continued every forty-five minutes. Hazel was sleeping in her bed again, snuggled up under three blankets and her stuffed dog. She shifted to her side and was suddenly awakened and the contents of her stomach were released all over the bed, splashing onto her as well.

Hazel climbed out of bed and slowly made her way down the hall, afraid her father would be upset with her. She took each step, one at a time as she held onto the wall down the dark hallway. Reaching her father's open doorway, she peeked inside. Bobby was asleep under his own blanket. The sound of his breathing was all she heard. Swallowing hard, which brought up a cough, Hazel made her way over to stand beside the bed.

"Daddy," she said, shaking his arm.

Bobby stirred, raising his head. His noise winkled at the foul odor of vomit. He reached up and turned on his lamp. "What happened?" he asked of her.

"I true up all over my bed," she told him.

Bobby threw back the blanket and sat up, placing his feet on the floor. "Come on, let's go get ya cleaned up." The old hunter led his daughter into the bathroom and ran a bath for her. He helped remove her soiled pajamas and Hazel climbed into the tub. He cleaned her off and headed for her bedroom to find her something to wear. Bobby looked through Hazel's dresser and decided that a pair of sweatpants and one of her T-shirts would have to do.

He got her out of the tub and dried her off, helping her get dressed afterwards. Bobby ended up having to move from where he was sitting on the toilet lid so Hazel could throw up in it. Once Hazel was taken care of, Bobby tended to the soiled bed, changing the sheets and blankets. Even Penny had to go in the wash. After the bed was remade, he helped Hazel back in bed and gave her a bucket to use, along with a dose of her medicine and some ginger ale for her stomach. The whole process was repeated, three times that night.

Bobby rubbed at his eyes as he leaned against the kitchen counter. It felt like Hazel had been sick all week when it actually only been a couple days. The toast popped up from the toaster. Bobby set his coffee down and set the two pieces of toasted bread on a plate and took it upstairs to Hazel's bedroom where she was lying down still.

He sat on the edge of the bed, rubbing her back. "Hey sweetpea, can you try eating a piece of toast for me, please?" he asked her.

Hazel shook her head, slowly.

"You need to eat something, Hazel so it'll help your stomach. For me?"

She sat up as if in slow motion and took a piece of toast from her father, barely nibbling off a piece. Hazel chewed it, slowly as Bobby brushed her hair with his free hand.

"No fun being sick, huh?" he said.

Hazel shook her head, staring down at the bed as she continued to nibble off small bites.

Bobby sighed when one of the phones rang from downstairs. "I'll be right back, sweetpea," he told his daughter and stood up, setting the plate with the other toast on the bedside table. He wasn't expecting her to be able eat both. In fact, he was probably gonna eat it. "Keep eating," he called back as he hurried from the room and headed back downstairs.

The phone was the FBI phone asking about one of the hunters. Bobby took care of it and was about to head upstairs when there was a knock on his door. He answered it to see Jody standing there.

"Hey, thought I would see how Hazel's doing, on my way to work," she smiled, cheerfully.

He let out a tired breath, "Not good. Hazel caught the flu."

Jody frowned," Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that."

"We were up several times, last night with Hazel throwing up, poor kid." Bobby explained.

"Do you need me to go pick up a few things for her?" Jody offered.

"Nah, I sent Sam out to pick up some stuff," he told her.

"Well, I hope Hazel feels better. I also wanted to let you know that Anita Bardwell, the CPS worker wants to do a home evaluation tomorrow."

Bobby was outraged to hear the CPS worker was coming to look through his house. "Why?"

Jody shrugged, "She can't shake just leaving it alone. Mrs. Bardwell feels you're not a good fit for your daughter."

"That is bullshit!" Bobby hollered out.

She sighed, "I know you love Hazel, Bobby but after taking off for a week and the way you spoke to Mrs. Bardwell that day, she's pursuing to open a case file for Hazel."

Bobby fell back against the wall, rubbing his face in his hands. "I can't lose her, Jody. I just can't. Hazel has changed my world." Even though it had only been a couple weeks since Hazel had come into his life, a bond had already formed and Bobby wanted to do everything he could to give his daughter the fatherly love she missed out on for the first five years of her short life. Even this bug that Hazel had caught had brought them closer together because it showed her just how much Bobby cared for her.

Jody stepped inside the house and wrapped her arms around him. "I'm so sorry I brought her into this. I thought you would agree to give Hazel up." After a while, she left and Bobby headed back upstairs where Hazel was lying down again. Her toast was sitting on top of the other one, half eaten. Bobby went over and sat on the bed and lifted his daughter onto his lap. Hazel lied, limply in her father's arms.

Bobby leaned over towards the nightstand and picked up the thermometer and had her open her mouth so he could place it under her tongue. Soon, the thermometer beeped and he took it out and read the screen. It read, _102.4_ which.

"Daddy, it h-hurt," Hazel whimpered, softly.

Bobby set the thermometer back and rubbed her back, up and down in a slow motion. The phone rang again. He stood up and carried Hazel downstairs with him. She kept her head on his left shoulder the whole time as Bobby made his way to the phone and while he talked. Once he hung up, Bobby went into his den and the two of them cuddled up in his chair with a blanket and watched cartoons for a couple hours. Sam returned with the stuff Bobby asked him to get and put them away in the kitchen, then left for a hunt.

The phone continued to ring all day, making Bobby have to scoot out from under Hazel and answer it. Hazel's stomach stayed calm for most of the day until after lunch. Luckily, Bobby got her to the sink on time and had to clean it afterwards, along with the rest of his house as much as he could. His weapons were already locked up within the week, Hazel moved in.

Falling asleep in his chair, both of them managed to sleep through the night so hopefully that meant that Hazel's bug was passing. Bobby was awakened by a knock on the door, early the next morning. He very carefully slipped out of his chair, as to not wake up his daughter and went to answer the door.

Jody and Anita Bardwell were standing there. Mrs. Bardwell was holding a stack of papers and vanilla folders. "Good morning, Mister Singer," she greeted in a serious tone.

"Good morning," he replied, trying to stay calm.

"Mind if we come in?"

Bobby quickly moved to the side. "Right, come on in."

The women walked in before he shut the door behind them. Mrs. Bardwell glanced around the house. "You do a lot of reading?" she asked, noticing the stacks of books everywhere.

"Uh, yeah. Gotta read to keep your noggin strong," he replied.

Mrs. Bardwell scribbled something down on a piece of paper. "And where is Hazel?"

"Still asleep. Hazel is recovering from a case of the flu."

"I thought you just took her to the doctor's," she said, looking over the rims of her glasses. "Didn't you get her a flu shot?"

"I didn't think of it until now, but she did receive her annual shot." At that moment, Hazel had wandered over and held her arms up to her father. Bobby lifted her up. "How are yeh feelin' sweetpea? Yer tummy okay?"

Hazel nodded from his shoulder.

Mrs. Bardwell was watching like a hawk. "How long has she been sick?" she asked.

Bobby was rubbing her back, up and down. "Just a couple of days," he shrugged.

"Was there any reason for the Emergency Room?"

He shook his head. "I took care of everything like my mama did for me." He felt Hazel's forehead and noticed she wasn't as warm as she was the last two days.

Jody spoke up, "How's her bruises, Bobby?" she asked, curious.

"They're healing up, nicely," he told her and lifted the back of Hazel's blue T-shirt with Yoshi the dinosaur on the front. All the bruises were pretty much gone except for some scars Bobby guessed was from the edges of a belt.

"Any contact with the stepfather?" Mrs. Bardwell continued.

"Hell no," Bobby blurted out. He took control of himself and said, "I mean, no."

"Well, I have gotten in touch with him. Since we have no physical evidence of him abusing the child, he cannot be charged with child abuse," she explained.

"Let me guess, he denied it."

"Yes, he says Hazel climbs a lot of trees and furniture."

Bobby grumbled about that. Never once had he seen Hazel climb on anything. Once they finished talking, Bobby gave Mrs. Bardwell the grand tour as he carried his daughter. Hazel kept her arms folded between her and her father. When he tried to put her down in his chair, she started whimpering as she reached out for him.

"I have to walk Ms. Jody and Ms. Bardwell out and I will right back to make you some oatmeal. Okay?" he assured her.

Hazel shook her head as tears were starting to fall down her face. She tried to hold onto his arm.

"I promise I will be right back, sweetpea." Bobby kissed her forehead and turned to walk Jody and Mrs. Bardwell out.

"Well, the house passes," Ms. Bardwell said once they were outside. "But I will still be keeping my eye on you and checking in." With that, she was inside her small car and drove away.

Jody and Bobby said their good-byes as well before Jody got inside her police cruiser and headed back to the station. Bobby went back inside to make some oatmeal like he said he would.

As Bobby cooked the oatmeal, Hazel wandered over to him. "Daddy," she said, tugging on his jeans.

He looked down at her, "Yes, sweetpea?"

"Can I have 'ome juice, pwease?" she asked, politely.

"Well, I guess since you asked so nicely," Bobby smiled. While the water boiled on the stove, he grabbed the carton of orange juice from the fridge and poured his daughter a glass. "So you're feelin' a little better today, huh?"

Hazel nodded. "I don't h-hurt anymore and i-i-it don't feel wike I have to tow up."

"That's great to hear. I don't ever recall having to get up last night, either. Must have been a forty-eight hour bug then." Bobby handed the glass of juice to her and put the carton back in the fridge. Hazel took a drink of the juice and set it near the edge of the table as her father returned to the water that was now boiling. "Monday, I'm gonna take ya down and get you enrolled in school. You've been out of it for too long and I'd hate fer ya to get too far behind."

"But I don't w-want to go t-to 'chool, Daddy," she whined.

"I don't care," he told her. "No kid your age likes to go to school but you have to. Everything will be fine, I promise and I will make sure you get the help you need." Bobby poured the hot water into two bowls that held oats and mixed the rest of the ingredients in it before taking them to the table and sat down to eat.

Hazel sat at her spot on the end of the table while her father sat beside her. The loaf of bread was back, against the wall on her right so Bobby asked if she could pass it to him. Hazel put her spoon she was eating with down inside her oatmeal and picked up the loaf with both hands and set it on her other side so he could reach. However, when Hazel set it down, it knocked against her glass of juice she had left there and it fell to the floor with a crash as it broke into pieces and juice splashed all over the floor.

Hazel jumped off of her chair, quickly and backed into the wall. "I'm 'orry, Daddy," she told him, tears starting to fill up in her eyes.

Bobby looked at the spill then over at his daughter who looked terrified. This seemed very familiar to him and then it hit him. This was a memory he had pushed far back into his mind he did not want to remember. Now, here it was being relived and he was now in his own father's position and his daughter was in his.

He stood up and went to grab a broom, sweeping up the glass. Once the glass was all picked up, Bobby wiped up the juice. "See, it's no big deal," he said as he turned around towards his daughter. Hazel was nowhere in sight. Looking under the table, he found her huddled underneath in a ball. "Sweetpea, I'm not mad," he assured her, kneeling on the floor, to look under there better. "Accidents happen. You won't be punished, I promise."

Hazel looked at her father, nervously, "Pwomise?" she asked.

He nodded.

Hazel stood up to a crawling position and crawled out from under the table, slowly and hugged her father's neck. "I'm very 'orry, Daddy," she repeated.

Bobby hugged her back, "I know you are, Sweetpea. I know." He felt a tear escape his eye as he held his daughter in his arms. This was how the milk accident should have ended when he was a kid, Bobby made damn sure of it.


	10. Hazel's First Day of School

**A Bobby Singer Story**

Chapter 10

Over the weekend, Bobby kept busy decorating Hazel's bedroom the way she wanted it. Since Sam was away on a hunt and wouldn't be back for quite a while, Bobby let Dean come over and help take apart the bed that was already in there and put in a twin bed.

Hazel sort of liked Dean a lot better than she liked Sam but Bobby made sure to tell her not to bring up Sam at all around Dean. If Dean knew his brother was back, he would be sucked back into hunting for sure and Bobby liked how he was making a life with Lisa and Ben. It's the closest any hunter gets to a family. Dean had also brought Ben with him. Hazel liked the older kid when he agreed to battle beyblades together down in the den. Dean mostly brought the kid to distract Hazel since Bobby wanted to surprise her.

Once the bed was put together and made up with a _Beyblade _bedset, the men turned their attention to putting wall stickers up of the different characters and beyblades. Dean took care of the lettering above Hazel's bed, making it spell out _HAZEL'S ROOM_.

Halfway through, he turned around to look over at the older man. "Wouldn't this look better on the front of the door?" he asked.

Bobby looked over at the younger man. "You think so?"

"Maybe," he shrugged and walked over to the door, opening it to examine the door. "Maybe put the main dude here and at the top, put _HAZEL'S ROOM_. What do you think?"

Bobby thought about it.

"That way, anyone who comes through will know right off that it's her room and won't walk in by mistake."

"Good point, Dean," he told him. "All right, let's do it."

Dean headed back to peel off the letters while Bobby peeled off the large wall sticker of the main character of _Beyblade_ from the wall and moved it over to the door. Afterwards, he stepped back and let Dean add the letters above it. The boys then hooked up a brand new TV on top of a wooden dresser, along with the DVD player Jody had given to Hazel.

After a few hours, the bedroom was finally complete and Hazel was able to come upstairs and see it. The moment she saw it, her eyes grew wide as she looked around the room while her father held her. She had never had a bedroom that seemed like her own before. Yes, she had her own but it wasn't decorated nor did it seemed like a kid lived in it.

"You like it, sweetpea?" he asked her.

Hazel nodded at him and asked to be let down. She hurried over to Ben, who was standing in the doorway of her bedroom, looking for himself, staying quiet. She led him by the hand, inside. "C-come 'ee my woom, B-Ben," she told him.

Ben allowed the little girl to pull him inside. "Yeah, it's great, Hazel," he complimented.

For dinner, Bobby ordered pizza for everyone, and Dean and Ben stayed the night since it was getting late, and left the next morning. Monday morning, Bobby woke up at six and fixed a well-balanced breakfast for Hazel's first day of school.

Just as he placed their plates on the table, Hazel came downstairs and into the kitchen, dressed in a navy blue, collared shirt and tan pants. She had her _Beyblade _backpack on her back and her tennis shoes on her feet.

Bobby looked over at his daughter and smiled, "You look adorable, sweetpea."

"B-but why c-can't I wear my o-ter crows?" she asked.

"Because you have to wear a uniform at this school, that's why," he explained to her. "Here, come and eat so we can get going."

Hazel went over and sat down at her usual spot at the table. After breakfast, her father had her put her jacket on before they headed out the door and out to his car. She climbed into the backseat and Bobby got in the driver side.

"Nervous?" he asked while he was driving.

Hazel was staring out the window, biting her lower lip. She nodded before looking over at her father. "W-what if kid are mean t-to me here?"

"Just don't let them bother ya, sweetpea. Kids bully other kids to fill empowered. If you don't give into them, they'll get bored and leave ya alone," he explained to her.

"What if tay don'?" she asked.

"Then tell the teacher," Bobby shrugged up at the rear-view mirror. "The teacher should do something about it."

"Kid m-make fun of ta way I t-talk and about m-my teet," Hazel added.

"Well, just ignore them. Okay." Bobby told her. "You are a beautiful girl, no matter what anyone says."

Hazel nodded at him.

At the school, Bobby enrolled Hazel before meeting the principal and eventually her teacher. Hazel hid behind her father's leg, refusing to come out or say anything.

Her teacher went over and kneeled beside her, smiling kindly. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Hazel," she told her in a sweet voice. "I'm Mrs. Norberry. The kids are making kitty cats for Halloween. Would you like to make one?"

Hazel didn't say anything. She stared back at the woman from her father's left leg.

"You can make it anyway you like, sweetie."

Hazel buried her face in his leg, tightening her grip.

Bobby looked down at his daughter, "Yer gonna be fine, sweetpea. And I'll be right here when school's over."

The teacher stood up and peeled Hazel from his leg. Bobby gave her a kiss good-bye before he started walking down the hall. Hazel watched as her father walked away, reaching out a hand towards him. She didn't make a sound though. She just silently cried.

Mrs. Norberry led Hazel inside and showed her to her desk, helping her with her backpack and jacket. She hung them on the back of Hazel's chair and showed her how to cut out the black paper Halloween cat with the safety scissors. Hazel took over, wanting to do it herself.

When the cat was cut out, Hazel used a white crayon to fill in eyes, a nose, and whiskers before just drawing random designs on the rest of its body. After she was done, the cat was the most imaginative a cat could be. She was disappointed when Mrs. Norberry told her that they were hanging it up outside their classroom. Hazel wanted to take it home and show her father. Mrs. Norberry assured her that she could take it home after Halloween and that she could show her father after school.

Hazel reluctantly agreed.

After the arts and craft project, the kids worked on math next. Mrs. Norberry did some practice on the whiteboard of basic addition problems, letting the kids interact if they raised their hands first. Hazel sat at her desk beside the teacher's desk, sitting there, watching and keeping quiet. When Mrs. Norberry called on her to answer what two plus zero was, Hazel did not answer, seeing all eyes on her. Hazel was having trouble understanding the concepts. She didn't want to speak and say the wrong answer in front of everyone else.

But Mrs. Norberry wouldn't move on to another student. She broke it down for Hazel, trying to get her to answer. Hazel just shook her head.

"Come on, Hazel," she told her. "I know you can do it. If you had two cookies and no one gave you any more, how much would you still have?"

Hazel remembered this was the same way her father taught her. She thought it over in her head. If she had two cookies and no else shared theirs with her, wouldn't she still just have two? But what if this was a trick question. If she said two, would that be right?

She hesitantly held up two fingers, right in front of her so no one else besides Mrs. Norberry could see it.

Mrs. Norberry smiled at her, "That's right, Hazel. You would still have two cookies." She wrote a two under the problem on the board. "Two plus zero is just two. Great job!"

Hazel was glad when she moved onto another kid. Once Mrs. Norberry was finished with the lesson, she gave each one a worksheet to practice on while she played classical music on a radio behind her desk. When she noticed Hazel just staring at it, she went over and kneeled in front of her desk and helped her through some of them, showing Hazel how to count on her fingers. Hazel started smiling once she started getting the hang of it. She still wasn't talking yet in fear of anyone hearing her and laughing. Instead she held up how many fingers that answered what Mrs. Norberry asked.

By the twelfth problem, Hazel was doing it herself, using her fingers to figure out the answer. It made her day to finally understand something in school. No one had taken the time to break it down for her. That was mostly what Hazel had trouble with was the teacher going too fast and not slowing down so she could understand. But once Hazel did, everything was okay.

The rest of the morning went by, smoothly. After math, Mrs. Norberry passed out a lined piece of paper with space at the top to draw, to each child and told them to draw a picture of what they were going to be for Halloween and then to write about it.

Hazel stared at her blank piece of paper and her eyes started tearing. Her step father never let her dress up and go trick-a-treating for Halloween because she was considered in trouble and couldn't go. Hazel wasn't even sure if her father would let her go. He hasn't said anything yet and Halloween was four days away.

Mrs. Norberry walked up and down the aisles, looking at each drawing, smiling and complimenting on them. She stopped when she got to Hazel's desk. Mrs. Norberry figured Hazel didn't understand the directions and kneeled down beside her desk to explain it again where she thought she could.

Hazel shook her head, a tear running down her right cheek.

"Are you going trick-a-treating, Hazel?" Mrs. Norberry asked.

She barely shrugged.

"Doesn't your dad take you? Or your mom?"

Finally, after a moment's hesitance, Hazel whispered, "M-mommy i-is dead."

Mrs. Norberry looked at her, sad to hear her mother had passed. "Well, doesn't your dad take you?" she asked again.

Hazel shrugged again.

Mrs. Norberry wasn't sure what that meant. "You don't know? Did he take you last Halloween?"

She shook her head and whispered, "I wive wit M-Mommy and Henry."

"You what? I can't hear you, sweetie."

"I wive wit my mommy and Henry," she repeated, still in a whisper.

"Oh. You lived with your mommy and Henry? Is that what you're saying?"

Hazel nodded.

"Who's Henry?" Mrs. Norberry asked, curiously.

Hazel whispered, "My 'tepdad."

"Your stepdad?"

She nodded.

"So, the man who dropped you off. Is he your real dad?"

Hazel didn't know what "real dad" meant but figured it was considered different from "stepdad" so she told Mrs. Norberry that Bobby was her real dad.

"Did your mommy and stepdad take you trick-a-treating?"

Hazel shook her head, slowly.

"How come?"

"Henry 'aid I w-was a b-bad girl," she whispered and another tear fell.

Mrs. Norberry stopped right there, suddenly everything making sense why Hazel was so shy and didn't want to speak or ask for help. She'd been a teacher for a long time to know when a kid was being abused at home. "Is your dad nice?"

Hazel nodded this time.

"Then I'm sure he'll take you. Make him this to tell him what you want to be for Halloween and maybe he'll take you to go buy a costume," she smiled at the little girl. "You can be whoever you want to be."

She nodded again.

Mrs. Norberry stood up, rubbing Hazel's upper back. "And remember to do the best you can. Okay?" she continued to smile and moved on.

Hazel took out her crayons again and started to think about what she wanted to dress up as for Halloween. She thought about all of her favorites on TV and her favorite animals. She really liked the main character of _Beyblade _but couldn't draw him that well. Then she thought about her second favorite cartoon, _Batman_. She thought it would be cool to be Batman and daydreamed of her driving around in the Bat Mobile, with Robin, saving the world from the Joker and the Penguin. After thinking about it for five minutes, Hazel snapped out of her daydreams and started drawing herself dressed as Batman in stick figure form.

When everyone was done, Mrs. Norberry had the kids come up to the front and talk about what they had drawn. It turns out that there were many Batmans in the class, though Hazel was the only female Batman. When it was Hazel's turn, she refused, shaking her head.

"Why not?" asked Mrs. Norberry. "Don't you want to share with the class what you chose?"

Hazel shook her head once more.

"Can I show it to the class then?" she asked, sweetly.

Hazel shook her head for the third time, covering her drawing with her arms. Mrs. Norberry didn't press any further after that.

At eleven-thirty, Hazel's class went to lunch. Hazel sat by herself at the end of their table and ate the lunch her father had packed for her. While she ate, she couldn't help but feel an uneasy feeling Hazel couldn't shake. Hazel looked around the gymnasium as it was filled with the other kindergarten classes and the first-graders, too.

Over by the trash cans was a fairly large, bald man emptying the dustpan into one of them. If Hazel didn't know better she swore it was Henry and grew terrified, remembering her stepfather worked as a janitor as his main job. Mechanic was his job on the weekend and on days school wasn't in session.

When the man looked up, and Hazel got a better look at him, she saw that it was Henry. Jumping out of her seat, Hazel tried to run from the gymnasium until Mrs. Norberry stopped her.

She kneeled down to the little girl's level, holding her upper arms. "Hazel, what's wrong, sweetheart?" She asked, seeing the distress across Hazel's face.

"I-I-I w-w-want m-my d-daddy," she hiccupped, quickly.

"Calm down, sweetheart. Tell me what's wrong?" Mrs. Norberry tried to calm her down, rubbing her arms, up and down.

Hazel just shook her head. "C-c-can I g-go home n-n-now?" she asked.

"Not until two-thirty, okay? Can you talk to me?"

Hazel shook her head again and looked over her left shoulder.

Mrs. Norberry looked over at who she was looking at and smiled, "That's Mr. Johnston, our clean-up guy. He keeps our school very clean and is such a nice guy, too."

Hazel grew even more terrified when she learned his last name. Johnston was Henry's last name, too. In Hazel's mind, whether it was or not, that was Henry and she did not want to stay there to find out either. She tried to run away but Mrs. Norberry kept her from it. Hazel didn't notice that her class was watching now.

"Hazel, it's okay. You don't have to be afraid of Mr. Johnston. He won't hurt you," she assured the little girl, trying to hold her in place.

Tears were pouring down her cheeks by now as Hazel silently cried. Her anxiety was growing more and more as time went on. Mrs. Norberry didn't know what to do.

"Hazel, it's okay," she kept repeating until the principal came over and took a hold of Hazel, leading her out of the gymnasium and down the hall to the front office. Hazel sat in one of the chairs, huddled in a ball and closed up. They tried having the school guidance counselor come talk to her but Hazel just wouldn't open up. So, since it was close to the end of the day for kindergarteners, the principal called Bobby to come pick her up and called Mrs. Norberry to bring up Hazel's things.

The guidance counselor tried some more to talk with Hazel, sitting next to her. "Honey, can you talk to me, please. We want to help you."

Hazel hugged her knees to her, hiding her face in them. She happened to look out the corner of her eye to see Mr. Johnston coming down the hall. Her heart started beating fast. He must have recognized her because he stopped dead in his tracks when he saw her.

About that time, Bobby had entered the main office, catching her attention. Hazel quickly ran over and hugged him around the legs. Bobby could feel her shaking from head to foot.

"Sweetpea, what's wrong?" he asked as he lifted his daughter up, into his arms.

Hazel silently cried on her father's left shoulder as he rubbed her back.

"Talk to me, kiddo. What's going on? Didn't you have fun?" he kept trying.

She lifted her head, slowly and whispered in his ear for only him to hear, "Henry is h-here."

Bobby jolted his head back in surprise. "What do you mean?"

Hazel stole a look back to where she had saw Mr. Johnston. Mr. Johnston had ducked behind a wall when he saw Hazel be picked up so Hazel couldn't see him anymore. The guidance counselor handed Bobby, Hazel's backpack. He thanked her and left the office.

Holding her backpack on his arm, he asked again. "What did you mean, Henry was here, sweetpea?"

Hazel had laid her head back down on his shoulder, looking outward. She moved her face along it to look at her father. "I 'aw h-him in ta gym at wunch. He cweans up the 'chool." Hazel lifted her head to shake it, "I don' w-ant t-to g-go back, Daddy."

"Are you sure you weren't seeing someone who looks like Henry?" he asked her.

"He 'topped when he 'aw me," she added.

Bobby couldn't believe it. What were the chances of his daughter's stepfather working at the same place he sent her to school? It had to be very slim and with being a hunter and his experiences, Bobby wasn't that lucky. So what was he supposed to do? Sioux Falls was a small town and this was the only school for miles. He couldn't just tell the school to fire him, especially when he had no proof Henry ever abused her. It was his word against his and usually that never helped.

Bobby just held his daughter to him as he stood there, comforting her. What was he supposed to do?


End file.
